In what must be a bit of a relief for both AMPAS and the network, viewership for this year’s 95th Academy Awards ceremony was up on Sunday – jumping 12% on last year’s ratings with a 4.0 rating and an average of 18.7 million viewers tuning in.
Nielsen announced the early, time zone-adjusted ratings – numbers that could change when the final national figures are in tomorrow. To put it in comparison, the 2022 ceremony drew 15.36 million viewers and a 3.2 rating in its early, time zone-adjusted ratings before ultimately snagging 17.6 million viewers in its final numbers – the most-watched non-sports program of last year.
This year’s Jimmy Kimmel-hosted ceremony faced tough competition against “The Last of Us” finale on HBO which drew series high ratings. Amusingly the latter show’s star Pedro Pascal presented an award at the ceremony right about the time that finale episode was airing.
Still, the presence of popular $100 million+ grossing films like “Top Gun Maverick,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and winner “Everything Everywhere All at Once” likely helped draw more eyeballs to this year’s telecast – as did viewers probably curious about how the ceremony would handle itself post-slap.
The ceremony hit a record low in 2021 of 10.5 million viewers and a 2.2 rating. The numbers this year, though good, are still a long way from the Oscars glory days – 23.6 million tuned in for the 2020 ceremony when “Parasite” won, 33 million for the 2017 ceremony when “Moonlight” won, 43.6 million for the 2014 ceremony when “12 Years a Slave” won, and the record holding 1998 ceremony when 55.3 million watched “Titanic” claim Best Picture.
Source: Variety
