2024 Oscars TV Ratings: A Look at the Recent Trends and Hollywood’s Mood

2024 Oscars TV Ratings: After recent strikes and the boost from the “Barbenhiemer” sensation, the 96th Academy Awards on Sunday could act as a gauge for Hollywood’s mood.

After hitting a record low in 2021, the broadcast’s viewership and ratings increased in 2022 and 2023. Both, meanwhile, were far less than in the middle of 2010. According to Nielsen, the last time the program attracted more than 40 million people was in 2014, the year “12 Years a Slave” won Best Picture.

1998 saw “Titanic” dominate the Oscars and draw in over 55 million viewers, setting a record for the program’s viewership. When “Gandhi” won Best Picture in 1983, that was the only other occasion the telecast attracted more over 50 million people.

The UK, where Sunday’s Oscars ceremony was allegedly watched by an average of roughly 640,000 people, has provided the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with good ratings news while we wait for the US viewing figures for 2024 to be released.

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Broadcast magazine revealed that ITV’s broadcast of the 96th Academy Awards drew an average audience of 637,000 viewers, with a peak audience of 1.9 million. This is a notable gain in UK viewing for the film awards event in the first year that ITV has taken over from Sky as the British broadcaster: Only 95,000 Britons on average watched the 2023 Oscars.

The fact that ITV is free to air but Sky requires a paying membership has probably increased the audience. Furthermore, the Oscars will now begin at 4 p.m. PT, an hour earlier than in past years, which will have encouraged British viewers to watch. In addition to a shorter time difference between the US and the UK, this meant that UK viewers of the Oscars will be able to watch the ceremony at a more reasonable 11 p.m.

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The west coast of America is normally eight hours behind the UK, but this weekend, three weeks ahead of Britain, the States will be observing daylight saving time, bringing the difference to seven hours.

Did the 4 p.m. Oscars start help the declining US ratings?

Although positive feedback from foreign viewers gives the Oscars’ organizers hope, the main motivation behind the ceremony’s early start time appears to have been a desire to improve the event’s poor US ratings.

The Oscars, which ABC broadcasts domestically, have had a terrible decline in viewership in recent years. The gala’s average viewership in the US dropped to an all-time low of 10.6 million in 2021. Although it increased to 18.7 million last year and 16.6 million in 2022, these numbers are still the second and third lowest ever for the Academy Awards, respectively.

In fact, the audience for the Oscars in 2023 was just one-third that of the record average of 55.25 million TV viewers who watched the ceremony live in 1998.

The Hollywood Reporter was informed by the Oscar showrunners prior of the 2024 ceremony that the decision to move from the usual 5 p.m. PT start time was made to make sure the ceremony concluded in primetime on the US east coast, which is three hours ahead of the west coast. “We believe the earlier start time has many advantages,” ABC’s Raj Kapoor stated in a media interview.

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The 96th Academy Awards see Oppenheimer win big

With comedian Jimmy Kimmel serving as host, the popular biography Oppenheimer took home four Oscars in all, including Best Picture. Best Director went to Christopher Nolan, while Best Actor went to the movie’s lead, Cillian Murphy.

Emma Stone,35, won the Best Actress prize unexpectedly. This is the 35-year-old’s second career win, having previously won the award for her role in the bizarre comedy Poor Things. The oddsmakers had Lily Gladstone, who starred in Martin Scorsese’s epic film Killers of the Flower Moon, as the favorite to win Best Actress.

Jimmy Kimmel hosted the coverage in the United States once more. The performance of Ryan Gosling and guitarist Slash on the Barbie song “I’m Just Ken” was one of the highlights. The main winner of the evening was Oppenheimer, who took home several awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for British filmmaker Christopher Nolan, and Best Actor for Cillian Murphy.