NBC renews ‘Songland’ for second season

Summer’s No. 1 most-watched new alternative series returns in 2020

NBC has renewed the hit songwriting competition series Songland for a second season. So far this summer, the songwriting reality show is averaging a 1.1 rating in adults 18-49 and 5.1 million viewers overall in “live plus seven day” Nielsens, making it the summer’s No. 1 most-watched new alternative series. After 35 days of digital and linear delayed viewing, including encores, Songland grows to a 1.9 rating in 18-49 and 7.6 million viewers overall. In its Tuesday and Wednesday timeslots, Songland has remained undefeated this summer in total viewers versus its ABC, CBS and Fox competition (“live plus same day”).

Songland has produced multiple chart-topping hits including six songs that have achieved a No. 1 ranking on an iTunes music chart. Songs by the Jonas Brothers, Kelsea Ballerini, Black Eyed Peas, will.i.am with Snoop Dogg, Macklemore, Leona Lewis and John Legend have topped the charts. The show provides viewers with the unique ability to immediately download or stream the winning song following the episode, which has quickly propelled each of the Songland songs to the top of the charts.

In season one, NBC tapped into key music partnerships to expand the show’s reach and messaging. Songland collaborated with iHeartRadio for an exclusive podcast series that has garnered over 1.7 million listeners to date. Additionally, the series partnered with BMG for a recording and publishing contract to release the songs written and recorded by the two runners up, and created a strategic song release plan with music distributors such as Apple Music, iTunes, Spotify and Pandora.

The program has created two special partnership episodes in its first season – one in which Aloe Blacc found a hit song that was featured in Universal Pictures’ blockbuster film Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and one in which Old Dominion found a song for a Jeep brand commercial, in which Jeep chose to feature the winning songwriter.

The series’ innovative format takes an inside look at the creative process behind songwriting, and each episode provides one up-and-coming songwriter the opportunity to have their song recorded by a chart-topping artist and released immediately after the episode airs worldwide. Songland season one guest recording artists include Jonas Brothers, John Legend, Meghan Trainor, Macklemore, Charlie Puth, Kelsea Ballerini, will.i.am, OneRepublic, Aloe Blacc, Old Dominion and Leona Lewis.

The show features powerhouse producer-mentors Ryan Tedder (lead singer of OneRepublic and Grammy Award-winning producer of Adele, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Jonas Brothers), Ester Dean (Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer of Rihanna, Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj) and Shane McAnally (Grammy-winning songwriter and producer of Kacey Musgraves, Kelly Clarkson and Sam Hunt with 40 No. 1 country records).

The search for the next hit song continues with casting underway for season two!

Songland is executive produced by Emmy Award-winning producer Audrey Morrissey (The Voice), director Ivan Dudynsky, Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart, Chad Hines, and multi-Grammy-winning recording artist and Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine. Josh Gummersall serves as producer along with Ryan Tedder. The concept was devised by Stewart, Morrissey and Dudynsky.

Songland is produced by Live Animals in association with Universal Television Alternative Studio, Dave Stewart Entertainment and 222 Productions.

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com