VMA RATINGS: THE
UPS AND DOWNS

MTV’s VMAs reached 9.8 million viewers on all Viacom networks, down from 10.3m on all simulcasts last year.

But while TV viewership declined, the show’s social impact grew substantially. The VMAs inspired some 21.4 million tweets, way up from 12.6m last year, achieving some 676m impressions. That’s a bigger Twitter footprint (tweetprint?) than any event except the Super Bowl.

Kanye West’s sprawling speech was the most tweeted-about moment, prompting nearly a quarter-million tweets after announcing his intention to run for President. “Listen to the kids, bruh,” future-President Yeezy proclaimed. Those kids may not want to pay for cable, but they still seem to wanna tune in—and talk about it.