Which Grammy Awards ceremony was the first to be televised nationally in the United States?

The 13th Annual Grammy Awards was the first Grammy ceremony to be televised nationally in the United States.

The ceremony took place on March 12, 1971, at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. ABC carried the broadcast, beginning the Grammys’ long-running relationship with network television.

Earlier ceremonies had been presented as industry events, with winners and performances reported afterward. National television changed the awards into a major entertainment broadcast and helped make Grammy recognition familiar to a much larger audience.

The 1971 ceremony honored recordings released during the preceding eligibility period. Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge over Troubled Water” was one of its major successes, winning Album of the Year and several other awards. The event is sometimes confused with the first Grammy ceremony in 1959, but that first event was not nationally televised.