Departing 40-year Grammys producer Ken Ehrlich discusses the competition from the American Music Awards

Variety

"Half of my show (lineup) is going to be on the AMAs," says Ehrlich, who began producing the Grammys in 1980 and will helm "music's biggest night" for the final time on Sunday. "I used to be able to ask them to resist the AMAs. When they moved to November, I don’t have any leverage anymore. I can’t deprive them of that whole Christmas market selling. I couldn’t hold the line anymore. I didn’t feel right doing it. There are artists that I will do it with. The case that I’ll make to the artist and label and manager is, pragmatically, do you want to expose that performance to an audience of 7 (million) to 8 million people, or do you want to expose it to an audience of 22 million? That’s number one. Number two is the way we do it and the care we take with it. It’s simple. It’s a Grammy moment or it’s not."