‘Teen Choice Awards’ Tank in Ratings, All-Time Low

If you watched the 2019 Teen Choice Awards live on Sunday night, you were in rarefied air. The annual awards show had its worst rated edition this past weekend, despite appearances from OneRepublic and Taylor Swift. This year’s special was broadcast live on Fox from Hermosa Beach, California.

The two-hour awards show only earned 722,000 viewers, almost 30 percent less than last year’s Zac Efron-hosted show, reports Variety. It only had a 0.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic. The show is now on a two-year losing streak after the 2017 edition scored almost 1 million more viewers than the 2019 show.

This year’s ceremony was hosted by former Pretty Little Liars star Lucy Hale and David Dobrick, a digital star and TV personality. The lineup of performers included OneRepublic, Bazzi, Blanco Brown, CNCO, HRVY and Sarah Hyland and Jordan McGraw. The Jonas Brothers accepted the Decade Award.

Swift did not sing any of her new singles, but instead accepted the first ever Teen Choice Icon Award. The “You Need to Calm Down” singer used her speech to remind fans that her new album Lover is out on Aug. 23. She also announced the album’s title track will be released as a single on Friday.

Swift accepted the award from soccer star Alex Morgan. She used the show as a platform to shine a spotlight on the U.S. Women’s Soccer National Team’s gender pay gap dispute.

“First I want to talk about Alex Morgan. The fact that she’s here presenting this to me is such an honor,” Swift said in her speech. “While they were winning the World Cup they were also taking a historic stand in terms of gender equality, gender pay gap. Please, please, please support her and her teammates because this isn’t over yet. It’s not resolved.”

The big winner on the movies side was Avengers: Endgame. The Marvel movie won for Choice Action Movie; Choice Action Movie Actor for Robert Downey Jr.; and Choice Action Movie Actress for Scarlett Johansson.

Riverdale was a big winner in the TV categories. The CW show swept the drama categories, winning Choice Drama TV Show; Choice Drama TV Actor for Cole Sprouse; and Choice Drama TV Actress for Lili Reinhart. Sprouse and Reinhart also won Choice Ship.

Shawn Mendes won Choice Male Artist and Billie Eilish won Choice Female Artist. Why Don’t We won Choice Music Group and Dan + Shay won Choice Country Artist. Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next” won Choice Pop Song.

Photo credit: Frank Micelotta/FOX