After debating picks and filling out your party Oscar pools, usually the second most discussed aspect of the Academy Awards tend to be the television ratings. Like many awards programs, the telecast saw a dramatic drop during the pandemic. This year, ABC and The Academy can breathe something of a sigh of relief because, for the second straight year, the ratings went up.
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Based on Fast National Live+Same Day program data provided by ABC, 18.7 million Total Viewers watched the ceremony live and it scored a 4.0 rating among Adults 18-49, a key metric for advertisers. That was up 12% over last year’s 16.7 million viewers and up 5% in Adults 18-49. That’s impressive considering social media exploded following the Will Smith altercation boosting the 2022 telecast in its final hour.
Moreover, after doing everything they could to minimize the number of below-the-line categories in 2022, the Oscars brought the categories back and it did not impact the ratings or the runtime (both ceremonies were 3 hours and 40 min long).
Despite Tom Cruise and James Cameron not attending the ceremony, this year’s Oscar ratings were likely pumped up by the inclusion of “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” in the Best Picture race as well as live performances from Rihanna (who just delivered the second most Super Bowl halftime show ever) and Lady Gaga. ABC is no doubt smarting that Gaga’s last-minute decision to perform limited their ability to hype her inclusion in the program.
ABC was also thrilled to let everyone know this year’s Academy Awards were the most-watched award show of them all since the 2020 pandemic began. The Oscars outdrew the 2023 Grammys Awards on CBS by 50% (12.5 million) and the 2022 Primetime Emmy Awards on NBC by 217% (5.9 million). Among Adults 18-49, this year’s ceremony out delivered the Grammys by 38% (4.0 rating vs. 2.9 rating) and the Emmys telecast by 264% (4.0 rating vs. 1.1 rating).
The Academy Awards cratered to its lowest ratings in 2021 when just 10.4 million viewers watched “Nomadland” take Best Picture. Both ABC and The Academy would be euphoric if it could reach the pre-pandemic ratings of 2020, when “Parasite” took Best Picture and 23.64 million people tuned in. The contemporary high for an Oscars telecast is almost a decade ago, when 43.6 million people saw “12 Years A Slave” and “Gravity” duke it out for Best Picture in 2014. That ceremony was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has not yet announced the date for the 96th Academy Awards. It is also unclear whether Jimmy Kimmel will return as host for a fourth time.