UPDATE (3 p.m. ET): The 89th annual Academy Awards were reportedly watched by 32.9 million viewers on Sunday night, making the ceremony the least watched telecast since 2008, according to Reuters. The show also scored a 9.1 rating among adults 18-49, which is 14 percent less than last year’s ceremony among the same demographic.
PREVIOUSLY: Despite a more shocking ending than any of the films nominated, early numbers show that the 89th annual Academy Awards ceremony was watched by the smallest audience in nine years.
The award show hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on Sunday night will go down as one of the most memorable in Oscars history after Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty presented the Best Picture award to the wrong film due to an envelope mixup.
But according to an approximate measurement by Nielsen, which captures about 70 percent of all viewership over the top 56 markets, Hollywood’s biggest night garnered a 22.4 overnight rating, which is nearly 4 percent smaller than 2016’s 23.4 overnight score, Deadline reports. Last year’s 88th Academy Awards, which brought an eight-year ratings low to the telecast, was ultimately watched by 34.3 million viewers after all the numbers were recorded.
Total audience numbers will likely be released by ABC on Monday afternoon, but these early reports do not inspire confidence in the show’s final viewership.
The ceremony’s 3-hour-49-minute running time, which is reportedly the longest in a decade, could be to blame for the low ratings ― or maybe it was just that everyone went to sleep before “La La Land” “won” Best Picture.
Hey, Chrissy Teigen did.
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