Oscars viewership rises 56% to 15.4 mn after last year's historic low

Oscars viewership rose when 15.36 million sets of eyeballs tuned into the 94th Academy Awards.

The Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes-hosted show on Sunday was up 56 per cent from last year's historic low in audience size, per time-zone-adjusted fast-national numbers from Nielsen, and rose 68 per cent in key demo ratings to a 3.2, reports 'Variety'.

Looking at last year in the same preliminary fast-national data, the 2021 ceremony drew 9.85 million viewers and a 1.9 rating among adults 18-49.

The 2022 Oscars are up considerably in both metrics -- but still come in as the second-least-watched and second-lowest-rated Academy Awards on the books.

Final 'Live + Same Day' Nielsen data for the 94th Academy Awards, which will show out-of-home viewing and live streaming, will be available Tuesday.

Early fast-affiliate Nielsen numbers for Sunday's Oscars reported by some outlets Monday are not time-zone adjusted and do not factor in West Coast viewing of the awards show.

Sunday's Oscars began with Beyonce's remote performance of 'King Richard' track 'Be Alive' from a tennis court in Compton and ended with 'CODA' winning best picture.

In between, the show took an unexpected turn when presenter Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, and best actor nominee (and now winner) Will Smith went onstage and slapped Rock in the face.

The 2021 mid-pandemic, host-less Oscars ceremony drew a record low 10.5 million viewers and a 2.2 rating among the key adults 18-49 demographic on Sunday, April 25, according to finalised Live + Same Day data.

The year before that, the 2020 emcee-less telecast - which aired on February 9, a more typical date for the awards show - averaged 23.6 million viewers. In 2019, the first year in decades the show went without a host, the 91st Oscars brought in 29.6 million viewers.

Sunday's ceremony with the trio of Hall, Schumer and Sykes taking over, marked the end of a three-year hiatus on hosts since Jimmy Kimmel's turn at the 2018 Academy Awards drew 26.6 million viewers.