Viewership increased on Sunday when an average of 18.7 million viewers tuned in to watch “Everything Everywhere All at Once” earn Best Picture honors at the 95th Oscars on ABC with seven wins. That’s according to Nielsen’s preliminary, time zone-adjusted ratings, which include out-of-home viewing — but keep in mind, that number could change when the final nationals arrive.
The Oscars, which marked the return of host Jimmy Kimmel for the first time since 2018, were up 12% in ratings from last year. And according to those time-zone-adjusted fast-national numbers from Nielsen, it bettered last year’s 3.8 rating among key adults 18-49 by 5%, earning a 4.0 in the demo.
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This year’s telecast faced stiff competition from the season finale of HBO’s breakout smash “The Last of Us” — whose star, Pedro Pascal, was a presenter on Kudocast. But it probably benefited from greater interest in this year’s Oscar competition, given the presence of popular films like “Everything Everywhere,” “Avatar” and “Top Gun Maverick” in the race — not to mention the fact that audiences have a higher chance of winning the Oscars. Might be curious about how Kimmel and Telest will address last year’s slap by Will Smith against presenter Chris Rock.
Looking at similar preliminary Fast-National data from last year, the 2022 ceremony drew 15.36 million viewers and a 3.2 rating among adults 18-49.
The 2023 Oscars, which aired live from 8 p.m. to approximately 11:39 p.m. ET, were also the first from the producing team of Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner — live TV vets who took over the role after several years of filmmakers. filled that role.
Final “live + same day” Nielsen data for the 95th Oscars will be available Tuesday. The early fast-affiliate Nielsen numbers for Sunday’s Oscars reported by some outlets on Monday are not time-zone adjusted and do not factor in West Coast viewing of the awards show.
ABC executives were also prepared for the unusual numbers as daylight savings time was introduced on Sunday, and it was possible that the change in hour time could affect viewership.
Ratings for the Oscars have been severely low in recent years, hitting a record low of 10.5 million viewers in 2021 and a 2.2 rating among the key adults 18-49 demographic.
2022 broadcast, which featured a remote performance from Beyoncé as well as a shocking spat between Rock and Smith, drew 16.6 million viewers on Live+ same day according to Nielsen data—a 58% jump from the previous year and an average 3.8 rating ( 73% growth) from 2021) in the key adult 18-49 demographic. After additional time-shifted viewing in the days that followed, the telecast pulled in 17.6 million viewers, making it the most-watched non-sports program of the previous year.
But despite the nice growth, the show still managed to rank as the second worst viewership and ratings performance in Oscars history.
According to ABC and the Academy, last year’s show was billed as “the most social Oscar telecast on record”, with a total of 22.7 million social interactions and a 139% increase over last year’s broadcast (9.5 million). Had happened. The broadcast garnered 16 million video views on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
The record for the Oscar telecast is the historic entry in 1998, where an average of 55.3 million viewers watched “Titanic” as Best Picture. As recently as 2014, the Oscars still attracted 43.6 million viewers (when “12 Years a Slave” won). The last time the Oscars scored more than 30 million viewers was in 2017 (33 million, when “Moonlight” won) and the last time it crossed the 20 million mark was the pre-pandemic 2020 show (23.6 million, the year “Parasite”). was) victorious).
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