Viewership of this year’s Oscars has improved significantly compared to last year’s low numbers: twelve percent more people watched the ceremony than the year before, which was the second worst in history.
The company Nielsen, which led the audience measurements, notes that the show, which was broadcast in the US on ABC television, attracted 18.7 million viewers (in 2022, there were only 16.6 million viewers). A larger share of the audience than last year also belongs to the younger demographic group (between 18 and 49).
The second biggest temptation for American viewers on Sunday night was the concluding episode of the series’ first season The Last of Uswhich attracted 8.2 million viewers.
The bottom was 2021While the improved ratings are certainly welcome news for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, it must be said that Sunday’s spectacle was still the third least watched in the history of the metrics. So the Oscars still haven’t fully recovered from the cataclysmic year of 2021, when they only managed to attract 10.4 million viewers.
This year’s award was a marked turn back to tradition: after last year’s experiment with three female presenters, we returned to the standard comedian in the role of connector (for the third time the presenter was Jimmy Kimmel), but it certainly helped that the main favorite was relatively well-watched and popular (comedy Everything everywhere at once); the evening passed without any controversy or scandal. Considering that the 2021 and 2022 ceremonies were overshadowed by the pandemic, the closest point of comparison is 2020, when 23.6 million people watched the Oscars live.
The trends for the various award shows have been moving in different directions lately: the Grammys saw a 12 percent increase in viewership (12.6 million viewers), while the Emmys slipped to an all-time low of 5.9 million viewers.
The most watched Oscars in history was in 1998: when Cameron’s was crowned Best Picture Titanicit was watched live by 57 million Americans.
For many years, the Oscars were considered the second most watched television event of the year (behind the Super Bowl). Until 2018, the awards never dropped below 30 million viewers.
Source: Rtvslo
