Oscar Ratings Dip Continues Despite Controversy
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The 34.3 million viewers who tuned in to the Academy Awards represented that annual ceremony's smallest audience since 2008.
The Nielsen company said Monday that Oscar viewership was down from the 37.3 million who watched the ABC show in 2015. In 2014 and 2013, the show reached more than 40 million viewers each year.
The ceremony, hosted by Chris Rock, came amid controversy about a lack of diversity among the nominees and calls for a boycott among some minority fans. There was no immediate way to judge whether the controversy affected ratings, or whether other factors held the audience down.
Many years, the Oscars are television's biggest event after the Super Bowl.
The paucity of minority nominees this year led to calls for a boycott among some black stars, including Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee. But Nielsen did not immediately have any ethnic breakdown of Oscar viewership. Generally, the popularity of movies being honored tends to be the biggest factor in whether the audience for the live telecast is up or down.
Rock, in his second time hosting, hardly stayed away from the diversity issue. He peppered the audience with his first three jokes on the topic within 25 seconds.
The most recent awards shows, the Golden Globes and Grammys, also saw ratings declines. The Globes, which honor film and television, were seen by 18.5 million people, down from 19.3 million in 2015. The Grammy telecast hit a seven-year low in viewership.
Many years, the Oscars are television's biggest event after the Super Bowl.
The final half hour of ABC's pre-show telecast was watched by 22.2 million people, down from 23.8 million last year, Nielsen said.
Twitter marked a milestone, however: Leonardo DiCaprio's best actor award generated 440,000 tweets in a minute, the fastest ever counted at the Academy Awards. The previous Twitter highlight came two years ago when Ellen DeGeneres made her star-studded selfie.
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