TV ratings for the 2024 Oscars have reached their highest levels in 4 years

Jimmy Kimmel on stage at the 2024 Academy Awards

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The 2024 Oscars ceremony was the most watched in four years.

The Jimmy Kimmel-hosted ABC telecast averaged 19.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen's time zone-adjusted express national ratings. This represents an increase of 4 percent over last year. The 96th Academy Awards recorded the most viewers for any awards ceremony since 2020, when that year's Academy Awards ceremony — held a month before the U.S. went into lockdown in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic — attracted 23.64 million viewers.

Last year's ceremony attracted 18.76 million viewers. The Oscars broadcast has slowly been rebuilding its audience after hitting rock bottom with the pandemic-hit 2021 awards, which attracted just 10.4 million viewers in a largely scaled-down telecast (which also aired in late April, not its usual March slot). .

While the show's overall audience grew slightly, ratings among adults 18-49 declined slightly. The Oscars received a rating of 3.81 in the key demographic for ad sales, equivalent to about 5.03 million people in the 18-49 age group. This is down from a rating of 4.03 (5.32 million) a year ago.

The telecast began Sunday at 7pm ET/4pm PT, an hour earlier than in recent years. The early start (and end) time likely played a role in the show's audience growth, as did the presence of two Best Picture nominees in Oppenheimer And Barbie. The Oscars audience peaked in the final half-hour at 21.9 million viewers.

The Oscars remained the most-watched awards ceremony this season, surpassing the Grammy Awards in February by about 2.4 million viewers. Both the Grammys and Golden Globes (9.47 million viewers) had significant viewership growth this year, while the postponed Emmy Awards went the other way, falling to an all-time low in viewership in January.

Oppenheimer – The highest-grossing Best Picture winner since then The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 20 years ago – It led the night with seven awards, including Best Director (Christopher Nolan) and Best Actor (Cillian Murphy) as well as winning Best Picture. Bad things (four Oscars) and Area of ​​interest (Two) were the only other winners on Sunday.

After the Oscars, an episode of Abbott Elementary The program attracted its largest same-day audience ever, recording 6.9 million viewers and a 1.42 rating (1.87 million people) among adults ages 18-49. The final number is the best for an original comedy episode on the network since the series finale Modern family In April 2020.