The Oscars ceremony, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, was 6.4% bigger than last year according to broadcaster ABC (as reported to
Deadline). The last time more people tuned in was in 2004, when the audience was marginally higher at 43.6 million (the year that
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King won the majority of the awards). In terms of future proofing the event, the Nielsen index suggested that there was an increase of 1% in the 18 to 34-year-old audience bracket.
The show last about three-and-a-half hours, during which 24 awards were made. Despite the high audience, the
Toronto Sun notes that most critics were lukewarm about the overall show.
In addition to those tuning in, Twitter reported that 14.7 million Oscar-related tweets were sent worldwide during the telecast. Furthermore,
Entertainment Weekly has reported that ABC’s Oscar’s Red Carpet Live pre-show was also up, with the final half-hour delivering 27.6 million viewers.
The most watched Oscars ceremony of all time was in 1998, when
Titanic won 11 Academy awards. That year the ceremony was watched by 55.3 million viewers, according to
Variety.
