Sunday’s Oscars viewership hits four-year excessive on ABC

Sunday’s Oscars telecast that honoured atomic bomb drama “Oppenheimer” reached a four-year excessive in viewership with a median viewers of roughly 19.5 million on ABC, the Walt Disney-owned community stated on Monday.

The viewers grew 4 per cent from final yr, when 18.8 million folks watched the movie trade’s highest honours.

Oppenheimer, the blockbuster biopic in regards to the race to construct the primary atomic bomb, gained seven awards on Sunday, together with greatest image.

On social media, the Oscars ranked because the No. 1 programme on Sunday evening, producing 28.5 million interactions, additionally roughly 4 per cent above final yr, ABC stated.

The #Oscars hashtag was the highest trending matter within the United States on X all through the telecast, and the most-used hashtag on X worldwide on Sunday, the community added.

Jimmy Kimmel returned to host the ceremony, and the present earned typically constructive evaluations. The festivities began an hour sooner than typical, a transfer designed to seize extra viewers.

“It turns out that great wins, emotional speeches, Ryan Gosling singing… are all you need to produce a great Academy Awards ceremony,” wrote Kevin Fallon of The Daily Beast.

The present celebrated two of final yr’s highest-grossing movies, Oppenheimer and feminist doll journey Barbie. It featured memorable musical numbers, together with Gosling wearing scorching pink to carry out I’m Just Ken, and comedy bits with John Cena presenting greatest costume design.

Viewership of many awards ceremonies has dropped lately as audiences have ditched conventional tv for streaming and social media.

The highest-rated Academy Awards telecast was in 1998, when megahit Titanic swept the honours. More than 57 million folks tuned in that yr.

In 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Oscar scores hit their low level with 10.5 million viewers.