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Variety: Oscars ratings on ABC down 6% to eight-year low in the overnights

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G

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
Link.

Against a backdrop of controversy and protests surrounding the lack of minority nominees at this year’s Oscars, overnight ratings for Sunday’s ceremonies on ABC were down to what appears to be the show’s lowest number in eight years — though it remains far and away the top-rated kudocast on television.

In Nielsen’s metered market overnights, which include 56 of the nation’s largest markets, the Chris Rock-hosted “88th Annual Academy Awards” averaged a still-big 23.4 household rating/36 share from 8:30 to midnight ET, down 6% from last year’s 25.0/38 and 16% below the 10-year high of 27.9/41 from two years ago.

The previous low-water mark in the overnights came in 2008 when the Jon Stewart-hosted Oscars delivered a 21.9/33. That show ended up averaging 32 million viewers, which is the smallest on record, according to Nielsen.

Total-viewer and demo estimates for last night’s Oscars will be released later this morning by Nielsen, but the telecast, which saw “Spotlight” win best picture and Leonardo DiCaprio win his first Oscar, is expected to finish in the vicinity of 34 million viewers. So, despite declines from recent years, it will easily remain television’s top-rated non-sports program of the year. (Sunday’s Oscars out-performed the recent Grammy Awards on CBS by 45% in households and 56% in adults 18-49 in Nielsen’s overnights).

Last year’s Academy Awards ended up averaging its smallest audience in six years (37.26 million) and a seven-year low in the 18-49 demo (11.0 rating/29 share) — down sharply from its especially high ratings of 2014 with Ellen DeGeneres as host (43.74 million, 13.1/33 in the demo).

Civil rights leader Al Sharpton led a boycott of Sunday’s ceremony in Los Angeles, with about 70 demonstrators marching in a rally to protest the second consecutive year of African-American actors being shut out of the major acting awards. He vowed that “this will be the last night of an all-white Oscars.”

Second-time Oscar host Rock got mostly good reviews for his performance last night. Chief TV critic Maureen Ryan of Variety said he made the most of his opportunities, especially with his “scathing and generally well-crafted monologue.”

Nielsen is expected to release viewership totals for African-Americans on Tuesday. The minority typically makes up a small percentage of the overall Oscar viewing pie, with the high in the last 20 years coming when Rock hosted for the first time in 2005 (5.27 million) — a year that also featured prominent acting noms for African-American actors including Jamie Foxx and Don Cheadle. Last year, less than 10% of the overall Oscar viewership (3.29 million of 37.26 million) was black, according to Nielsen.
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B

BUNTING1243

Banned
It was the first year I didn't watch in a long time. I didn't feel very strongly about any of the movies outside of Spotlight, seemed like a pretty weak year

Spotlight beat angry-man-yells-at-the-woods and my man Lubewiski won for the third time in a row, so I'm satisfied.
 
R

Raxus

Member
Solo said:
Nobody actually wanted to watch Leo win, eh?
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1b616adb333728c309049d2fbca041d8606136c2fa9d3453196c798023541a95.jpg
 
D

demosthenes

Member
BUNTING1243 said:
It was the first year I didn't watch in a long time. I didn't feel very strongly about any of the movies outside of Spotlight, seemed like a pretty weak year
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Nice fast edit.

Disagree, saw a lot of the movies.

Watched the show with some friends, we all enjoyed it.
 
B

Brinbe

Member
Murica

And the majority of people aren't gonna stay up to watch some fucking actor win a stupid fucking award.
 
L

Lunar15

Member
Multiple factors that lead to a lot of people being a little less satisfied with Oscars bullshit. Race controversy, the idea of Leo being "due", and simply not a lot of tentpole releases to energize viewership. There wasn't a strong narrative around best picture this year. The only strong narrative was Leo, which just kind of sounds weird when you think it through.

It's also probably just declining with TV viewership.
 
O

Ovid

Member
I didn't watch it per se, but I did tune in to see the crowd diversity. As expected there wasn't any.

With regards to Leo, I like him as an actor but I don't care if he gets an award.
 
J

jagowar

Member
Lunar15 said:
Multiple factors that lead to a lot of people being a little less satisfied with Oscars bullshit. Race controversy, the idea of Leo being "due", and simply not a lot of tentpole releases to energize viewership. There wasn't a strong narrative around best picture this year. The only strong narrative was Leo, which just kind of sounds weird when you think it through.

It's also probably just declining with TV viewership.
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Also was a pita to get streaming... tv viewership has been declining for almost every major event but streaming has been filling the void. ABC made is so hard to use their app I bet many just said forget it and watched something else.
 
M

mnannola

Member
I thought Chris Rock knocked it out of the park last night in that monologue. Was able to touch on a pretty delicate issue with the right mix of comedy and serious tone. Not sure if anyone could have done it better.
 
B

Beer Monkey

Member
Why bother watching when you know the awards are based on popularity and not merit?

The Academy voters aren't even required to watch the movies.
 
N

nib95

Banned
Interfectum said:
You mean the general populace is losing interest in watching wealthy people give themselves gold statues? Crazy town!
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This is a bit of a reductive way to look at it. Whether you agree with the awards or not, there's still entertainment to be had outside of just the award aspect itself. Funny jokes, awesome editing and mixing, decent performances, relevant and sometimes poignant speeches, messages, recognition in other areas, custom designed clips and effects and so on. I'll be honest, I too sort of lost interest in the Oscars, but this years was excellent.
 
M

mantidor

Member
I didn't watch it and haven't watch it in years. If you follow the Oscars enough time you realize how little true merit is acknowledged. There was even for the first time ever a movie from my country nominated, The Embrace of the Serpent, but of course it was not going to win against a movie in Auschwitz, and everyone pretty much agreed about it, I'm not saying the movie that won is bad, of course not, but when results are these obvious you kind of lose interest in it.
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
hopefully the academy doesn't attribute this to chris rock. such a breath of fresh air after the garbage we've seen in the last 7 or 8 years for the most part.
 
S

Saint Gregory

Member
I would have watched but the nominations were pretty boring I thought. Looking at list of winners the few surprises there were weren't very exciting surprises.

I'm not sure how they fix this issue, you pretty much know months in advance who gave the Oscar worthy perfomances and the only surprise is usually best picture. Having the awards after the SAG and GGs doesn't really help either.
 
entremet

entremet

Member
No one really cares about the Oscars anymore.

Media is way too diverse these days--streaming, time shifting, etc. No one really should be surprised.

Award shows are just too stuffy for the mainstream. Plus, I only care about the winners and Twitter was great for that, while I do other things.

nib95 said:
This is a bit of a reductive way to look at it. Whether you agree with the awards or not, there's still entertainment to be had outside of just the award aspect itself. Funny jokes, awesome editing and mixing, decent performances, relevant and sometimes poignant speeches, messages, recognition in other areas, custom designed clips and effects and so on. I'll be honest, I too sort of lost interest in the Oscars, but this years was excellent.
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By in large, people don't find that entertaining. They're also way too long.
 
EdwardTivrusky

EdwardTivrusky

Member
If i'm honest I completely forgot it was on until this morning but even so i usually don't bother watching award shows anyway as i've yet to see one that kept me engaged.
 
T

thefro

Member
I didn't really care, but I haven't seen most of the movies nominated this year that were more niche stuff. I think I've only seen Mad Max out of the Best Picture nominees. Just watched Chris Rock's monologue.

It's more fun when there's a big tentpole release with a legit shot at awards.

Also, the show always ends way too late... they should start it at 7 PM EST/4 PM PST.
 
Honey Bunny

Honey Bunny

Member
nib95 said:
This is a bit of a reductive way to look at it. Whether you agree with the awards or not, there's still entertainment to be had outside of just the award aspect itself. Funny jokes, awesome editing and mixing, decent performances, relevant and sometimes poignant speeches, messages, recognition in other areas, custom designed clips and effects and so on. I'll be honest, I too sort of lost interest in the Oscars, but this years was excellent.
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That post wasn't being reductive at all. The general populace doesn't care about 'editing and mixing'. Film buffs seem to be more aware than ever of how political and contrived the selection of nominees has become, so the show has lost most of its authority on what is considered 'good'. Just like all other forms of media criticism it's spread further online. So what's left? Wealthy people giving each other gold statues, like he said. For anyone not interested in celebrity culture, it's a farce.
 
E

Escape Goat

Member
I dont understand award shows. I couldnt care less what a bunch of rich people think is the best. As if that means anything to me.
 
entremet

entremet

Member
Escape Goat said:
I dont understand award shows. I couldnt care less what a bunch of rich people think is the best. As if that means anything to me.
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I understand them. What I don't understand is the shock about the ratings.

It's not compelling entertainment (too long, too much commercials, nominated movies that are niche at best) and they've been losing their relevancy in terms of must see TV for years now.
 
hemo memo

hemo memo

You can't die before your death
The Oscars is just like another episode of a famous tv show, sometimes it can be good, sometimes bad.
 
P

-Pyromaniac-

Member
I watched the first 30 mins, then switched to walking/talking dead, then went back for the last 30 minutes (which lasted an hour :/).

I'm surprised people sit through these entire things. If you don't watch walking dead live you're FUCKED for spoilers.
 
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