TV Ratings: VMAs Hit 11-Year High With Madonna, Taylor Swift Front and Center

Live Feed Home TV TV News A big NFL lead-in probably helped as well. September 28, 2026 3:02pm Madonna and Charlie XCX at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards Francis Specker/CBS Logo text The MTV Video Music Awards scored their largest audience in more than a decade on Sunday night. The awards averaged 8.43 million viewers on CBS and MTV (including an encore on the latter), up by 51 percent from last year’s 5.6 million — which was also a multi-year high. Sunday’s audience (subject to adjustments when Nielsen adds its big data component) was the biggest for the VMAs since the 2015 show brought in more than 12 million people across multiple channels. The VMAs also had their best performance among adults 18-49 (2.66 million in that age range) since 2018; among adults 25-54 (3.11 million) since 2019; and among adults 18-34 (1.09 million) since 2020. Madonna — who also opened the show with a performance featuring Charli XCX and Sabrina Carpenter — was the night’s big winner with seven awards. Taylor Swift won video of the year for “The Fate of Ophelia” and also was given the first Artist Director award for musical artists who also direct videos. The awards, hosted by Snoop Dogg, also featured tributes to Dolly Parton and George Michael. Nirvana was awarded the Video Vanguard honor. The VMAs also benefited from what was likely a very large NFL lead-in. The awards peaked at 15 million viewers for Madonna’s opening number, which directly followed a game-winning field goal for the Baltimore Ravens over the Dallas Cowboys (who are perennially among the NFL’s biggest TV draws). The 2025 VMAs also had a strong NFL lead-in (23.9 million viewers), but the Ravens-Cowboys audience has a good chance of passing that mark. CBS accounted for 7.61 million viewers, or 90 percent of the total audience. MTV’s simulcast drew 686,000 viewers, and the replay chipped in 142,000 more. On social media, the awards accounted for 159 million video views across platforms, up 8 percent year to year. THR Newsletters Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day Subscribe Sign Up