The 2023 Oscars ratings are officially in, and it’s looking like the award show got a much-needed boost in attention. Just how many people watched the Oscars? Early numbers indicate an average of 18.7 million, per stats from Nielsen reported by Variety.
The early data only represents 8-11 p.m. ET viewership, and doesn’t include numbers from streaming services that offer live ABC broadcasts, such as Hulu + Live TV and fuboTV, nor does it include numbers from ABC and Hulu, where the Oscars was streaming next day.
In addition to dwindling interest in the awards show, the show also conflicted with the release of The Last of Us finale, which reached its highest viewership last week with 8.1 million viewers. Only time will tell if the ratings showed a dip at 9 p.m., which is when the HBO hit aired.
This year’s show, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, saw a 12% rise in viewership compared to the previous broadcast, which aired in 2022. That year, the Oscars saw an 58% rise in viewership from the year prior, pulling in 16.6 million viewers. Variety reported that while the ratings increased, it was still the second-worst performance in the award show’s history.
Read Related Also: New York police officer was accused of being a spy
Last year, the award show saw a spike in engagement when Troy Kotsur from CODA won Best Supporting Actor, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock, and Smith won Best Actor. Per Variety, the show also reached new heights when it came to social media performance, which is a sign that the Oscars need to keep up with the changing times by one, nominating streaming films without requiring them to have a theatrical run, and two, broadcasting the award show on a streaming service that doesn’t require a live-TV add on.
This year, the Screen Actors Guild Awards announced a partnership with Netflix and streamed the award show for free with no ads on the streamer’s YouTube channel, after announcing nominations via Instagram Live. Following the ceremony, it was reported that the show raked in 1.1 million views from the YouTube livestream, 1.5 million total views in the first 12 hours across YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and 19.4 million additional views on clips from the ceremony shared across platforms, compared to the 1.8 million views on TNT/TBS in 2022.
Last night’s Oscar ceremony featured divisive wins throughout the night (particularly in the Best Supporting Actress category), a teary tribute to Olivia Newton-John by her Grease co-star John Travolta, and a sweep by the A24 drama Everything Everywhere All At Once. Kimmel, in his opening remarks, made jokes about Smith’s slap controversy, Tom Cruise’s Scientology practices and the dangerous use of Ozempic within the Hollywood community. It was an eventful night, to say the least!
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&appId=823934954307605&version=v2.8”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
