The 2024 Oscars were the most
watched in four years, with the Jimmy Kimmel-hosted telecast on ABC averaging
19.5 million viewers, a 4 percent increase from the previous year. This marked
the largest audience for any awards show since 2020, when that year’s Oscars
drew 23.64 million viewers, just before the U.S. entered lockdown in the early
days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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| Jimmy Kimmel on stage at the 2024 Oscars KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES |
Last year’s ceremony attracted 18.76 million viewers. The Oscar telecast has been gradually rebuilding its audience since the pandemic-affected 2021 awards, which had only 10.4 million viewers for a greatly scaled-down telecast that also aired in late April, rather than its usual March slot.
While the total audience for the
show increased slightly, ratings among adults aged 18-49 declined slightly. The
Oscars received a 3.81 rating in the key advertising demographic, which
translates to about 5.03 million viewers in the 18-49 age group. This is down
from a 4.03 rating (5.32 million viewers) the previous year.
The telecast on Sunday began at 7
p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, an hour earlier than in recent years. This earlier start
(and end) time likely contributed to the growth in the show's audience, as did
the inclusion of two blockbuster best picture nominees, "Oppenheimer" and "Barbie." The Oscars reached their
peak audience in the final half-hour, with 21.9 million viewers.
The Oscars maintained their status as the most-watched awards show of the season, attracting about 2.4 million more viewers than February's Grammy Awards. Both the Grammys and the Golden Globes (9.47 million viewers) saw significant increases in viewership this year, while the delayed Emmy Awards experienced a decline, reaching an all-time low in viewership in January.
"Oppenheimer," the highest-grossing best picture winner since
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return
of the King" 20 years ago, dominated the night with seven awards,
including best director for Christopher Nolan and best actor for Cillian
Murphy, in addition to winning best picture. "Poor Things" won four Oscars, and "The Zone of Interest" took home two, making them the only
other films to win multiple awards on Sunday.
After the Oscars, an episode of Abbott Elementary attracted the show's largest same-day audience ever, with 6.9 million viewers and a 1.42 rating (equivalent to 1.87 million viewers) in adults aged 18-49. The latter figure represents the highest viewership for an original network comedy episode since the series finale of Modern Family in April 2020.
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