There was a silver lining for the Recording Academy in the postponement of the 2022 Grammy Awards.
The show, which was originally set to air tonight, Monday (Jan. 31), was bumped back to April 3, due to the fast-spreading Omicron variant. That keeps the show on a Sunday, where it has aired for the last five years. Sunday has long been regarded as the most prestigious time spot in television programming.
The Recording Academy also caught a break when their second-year host, Trevor Noah, was able to keep his hosting commitment on the rescheduled date.
The Grammys have aired on a Sunday night in all but two years since 2003. In 2006, the show aired on a Wednesday. In 2016, it aired on a Monday.
This year will mark the 18th time the show has aired on a Sunday, which enables Sunday to tie Wednesday as the most frequent night for a Grammy telecast since the first live telecast aired in 1971.
The first two live Grammy telecasts, in 1971 and 1972, aired on a Tuesday. The next five, from 1973-77, aired on a Saturday.
The show aired on a weeknight – Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday – every year from 1978 through 2002.
The show has aired on every night of the week except Friday.
The first live Grammy telecast ran a brisk 90 minutes. The show soon expanded to two hours. It went to three hours with the milestone 25th annual Grammy telecast in February 1983. It has since expanded to a planned 3-1/2 hours, with the actual time of the show creeping past four hours on occasion.