All eyes were going to be on the ratings for the 91st Annual Academy Awards, especially since the ceremony has seen steady declines in recent years but it looks like ABC and The Academy have a little reason to celebrate. Early numbers suggest that the show actually inched up a bit year-to-year.
ABC’s Oscars broadcast posted a 7.7 average rating in the adults 18-49 demo, up from the 6.8 rating that they scored in 2018, representing a 13% gain in the demo. ABC’s usual, pre-show “Oscars Live on the Red Carpet” broadcast was also up slightly from its 4.0 early rating a year ago to a 4.1 this time around.
Total viewers reached 29.6 million and in a time when most award shows are down, the telecast was actually up 11.5%. Blame it on the controversy surrounding this year’s ceremony which went hostless for the first time since 1989 or blame it on people caring about this year’s crop of films, but something definitely had more people tuning in, even if a 9% increase doesn’t seem like much.
The show clocked in at 3 hours and 21 minutes which is actually shorter than usual in recent years. Having no host and just getting the show going seemed to work well for the broadcast and I wouldn’t be surprised if this option is used a lot more moving forward.
The broadcast was the most-watched entertainment telecast on TV since the 2017 Oscars and the highest-rated non-sports program since the post-Super Bowl This Is Us in 2018. On the other side of the coin, Sunday’s ratings are still the second-smallest on record for the Oscars. Prior to last year, which is the lowest rating with 26.54 million viewers, the previous low was a bit over 32 million viewers in 2008.
