Jack Wagner, Editor

In a stunning shift for the entertainment industry, the Grammy awards have signed a deal with the Walt Disney company to move the awards to Disney-owned cable and streaming services. This includes the ABC network as well as the streaming services Disney+ and Hulu.

“As The Walt Disney Company combines forces with The Recording Academy to open this exciting new chapter in the history of the Grammys, we do so with pride and gratitude,” said Dana Walden, Co-Chairman of Disney Entertainment. “Live events have never been more important to our culture and industry, and we just acquired one of the crown jewels, adding to our portfolio of world-class programming across all genres.”

The deal comes as a major upset as CBS, the current host of the Grammys, has hosted them for over 50 years. The network took the rights from ABC in 1973. The awards show had also been on NBC prior to this, but its tenure on these networks was significantly shorter.

In 2016, CBS signed a deal with the Recording Academy of the United States to continue hosting the Grammys for the next 10 years. However, the two organizations were unable to come to a new agreement during their exclusive negotiation window about the awards, allowing Disney to capitalize on the opportunity. This means that the awards will continue to be on CBS in 2025 and 2026, before officially moving to Disney-owned services in 2027. The Recording Academy’s deal with Disney is also reportedly 10 years long, meaning the Grammys will be up for grabs again around 2036.

This comes after CBS took the American Music Awards from ABC this spring, the two networks essentially swapping music award shows. 

The Grammys are the most recent in a series of major television events that are now being hosted on Disney-owned networks. ABC is also the host of the Academy Awards, or Oscars, the Country Music Awards, and Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. In sports, ESPN will air the Super Bowl alongside ABC in 2027.

The details of the deal are currently unclear, though Variety reports that Disney is likely paying roughly $500 million over the 10-year contract, about the same as CBS during their 2016 contract.

This year the Grammys had a viewership of 16.9 million, a 34% rise from last year. This is the highest viewership that the Grammys have had since their 2020 show, with viewership beginning to climb back to pre-pandemic levels. Other awards shows have also seen improvement with the Oscars reporting a four-year high in viewership this year and the Emmys viewership jumping 54% from 2023.

Exactly how this deal will play out and whether or not it was a worthwhile pickup for Disney is yet to be determined. What is certain, however, is that this move was a major shakeup in the world of entertainment awards.