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Jimmy Kimmel on stage at the 2024 Oscars
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
The 2024 Oscars were the most watched in four years.
The ABC telecast hosted by Jimmy Kimmel averaged 19.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen’s fast time-zone-adjusted national ratings. That’s a 4 percent increase from the previous year. The 96th Academy Awards drew the largest audience for any awards show since 2020, when that year’s Oscars, held a month before the United States went into quarantine in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic , attracted 23.64 million viewers.
Last year’s ceremony attracted 18.76 million viewers. The Oscars telecast has been slowly regaining its audience after hitting rock bottom with the pandemic-affected 2021 awards, which drew just 10.4 million viewers for a greatly reduced telecast (which also aired in late April, not in their usual March announcement).
While the show’s overall viewership grew a little, ratings among adults 18-49 fell a little. The Oscars earned a 3.81 rating in the key ad sales demographic, equivalent to about 5.03 million people in the 18-49 age group. That’s down from a 4.03 rating (5.32 million) a year ago.
Sunday’s broadcast began at 7 pm ET/4 pm PT, an hour earlier than in recent years. The earlier start (and end) time likely played a role in the show’s audience growth, as did the presence of two successful best picture nominees in oppenheimer and Barbie. Oscar viewership peaked in its final half-hour with 21.9 million viewers.
The Oscars remained the most-watched awards show of the season, surpassing February’s Grammy Awards by approximately 2.4 million viewers. Both the Grammys and the Golden Globes (9.47 million viewers) saw substantial viewership growth this year, while the delayed Emmy Awards went the other way, falling to an all-time low in viewers in January.
oppenheimer – the winner of the best film with the highest grossing since The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Twenty years ago, it led the night with seven awards, including best director (Christopher Nolan) and best actor (Cillian Murphy), in addition to its win for best picture. poor things (four Oscars) and The area of interest (two) were the only other multiple winners on Sunday.
After the Oscars, an episode of Abbott Elementary It drew the show’s largest same-day audience, with 6.9 million viewers and a 1.42 rating (1.87 million people) in adults 18–49. The latest figure is the best for an original network comedy episode since the series finale. Modern Family in April 2020.