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The return of live event television continues.
ABC’s broadcast of the 96th Academy Awards on Sunday drew 19.5 million viewers, hitting a four-year viewership high, according to Nielsen. Live television viewership was up from 18.8 million last year, the third consecutive year that Oscar viewership has increased.
The ratings report will draw cheers from ABC and the academy, which moved up the start of the venerable awards ceremony to 7 p.m. ET, an hour earlier than usual, in hopes that more viewers would stick around for the final categories. .
That approach seemed to pay dividends, as did the numerous nominations for blockbusters “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” a change from recent years, when darker films dominated the ceremony. Jimmy Kimmel also received warm reviews in his fourth appearance as host, leaving him within striking distance of another late-night star who worked at the Oscars, Johnny Carson.
Nielsen said Sunday’s Oscars were the network’s most-watched awards show since February 2020, extending a recent trend in which viewer interest has surged for the kind of massive cultural events that have struggled during the pandemic.
In February, 16.9 million people watched the Grammy Awards, a 34 percent increase from last year. Viewership for the Golden Globes in January was up 50 percent compared to the previous year. The Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers broke ratings records with an audience of 123.7 million. Even the ratings for the 2023 Tony Awards, traditionally the least watched of the “EGOTO” quartet, stood up modestly.
At Sunday’s Oscars, Billie Eilish sang her pop ballad “What Am I Made For?” and Ryan Gosling delivered a bold but dedicated performance of “I’m Just Ken.” The choreography, which was based on the Busby Berkeley films and the Marilyn Monroe musical “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” was complemented by a cameo by thrash-rock guitarist Slash and a group of opening acts for Kens from “Barbie,” including Simu Liu.
ABC, which has broadcast rights to the Oscars through 2028, said it had exhausted its advertising inventory for Sunday’s event. The network did not share pricing, but advertising executives said ABC had charged between $1.7 million and $2.2 million for a 30-second ad, slightly more than last year. Some of the ads appeared on the broadcast itself, such as an ad for Don Julio tequila, in which Guillermo Rodríguez, a partner of Kimmel, offered the drink to celebrities in the audience.
In 2021, for a stripped-down pandemic Oscars held at a Los Angeles train station, only 10.4 million people tuned in. Viewership increased in 2022 to 16.6 million people, partly due to the bizarre spectacle of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock.
Still, there is no doubt that television viewing habits have changed. Before 2018, the Oscar telecast had never dropped below 32 million viewers.