Record for the last 4 years: 19.5 million viewers watched the “Oscar” ceremony

19.5 million people watched the Oscars on ABC/AP

On the night of March 11, the 96th annual Oscar ceremony took place. It drew 19.5 million concurrent viewers on ABC.

In time zone-adjusted national fast ratings, the Sunday airing from 7:00 PM to 10:29 PM ET attracted drew 19.5 million viewers and had a 3.8 rating among adults 18-49. By comparison, the 2023 telecast drew 18.8 million viewers and a 4.0 rating in the final count, according to Variety.

This means that this year's show was up just over 4% in total viewers,but fell 5% in the key demo. It should also be noted that this year the show started an hour earlier than in previous years.

With all that, the 2024 telecast was the most watched Oscar ceremony since 2020and marked the third consecutive year of growth in viewership. The 2021 ceremony, heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, drew a record low of 10.4 million viewers. In 2022, the number of viewers increased to 16.6 million, and last year – to 18.8 million.

At the Oscar ceremony “Oppenheimer” won seven awards, in particular for Best Picture, Best Director for Christopher Nolan and Best Actor for Cillian Murphy. Robert Downey Jr. also won Best Supporting Actor for his work in the film.

Also tonight, Emma Stone won her second Oscar for her role in Poor Man, >and Da'Vine Joy Randolph for Best Supporting Actress in The Dependents.

The documentary 20 Days in Mariupol also won an Oscar. Director Mstislav Chernov, while receiving the statuette, made an extremely powerful speech, from which it is impossible to hold back tears. .png” alt=”A record for the last 4 years: the “Oscar” ceremony was watched by 19.5 million viewers” />

Mstislav Chernov's film “20 Days in Mariupol” received “Oscar”/Photo AP

Martin Scorsese's “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Bradley Cooper's “Maestro” could not win not a single win, and “Barbie” failed in most of the categories in which it was nominated, except for Best Original Song (“What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish and Phineas O'Connell).

Speaking of ” Barbie”, Ryan Gosling blew up the audience with his performance of the song “I'm Just Ken”. Gosling, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Ken in the hit film, was joined on stage by an army of dancers that included Ken's co-stars Simu Liu, Nkuti Gatwa, Kingsley Ben-Adir and Scott Evans, as well as Mark Ronson and the legend of Slash's guitar scene.

Immediately following the Oscars, a special episode of Abbott Elementary achieved series-highs in both live and demo totals with 6.9 million viewers and a rating of 1.42 respectively.