Oscars Ratings: Return Of Chris Rock Sees Show Hit 8-Year Low

Deadline.com ^ | 2/29/16 | Dominic Patten

[LdSentinal]

Chris Rock came out swinging in one of the best opening monologues in years and took on the diversity controversy from the get-go at the 88th Academy Awards. Last night also saw Brie Lawson win Best Actress, Leonardo DiCaprio snag Best Actor in his fifth nomination, Alejandro G. Iñárritu was named Best Director and Spotlight won Best Picture. With all that, the Oscars themselves had a not such a great night with a 23.1/37 in metered market results.

That’s down 6% from the 24.6/39 that the ceremony got last year in early results from the 56 markets across the country. That 2015 Neil Patrick Harris hosted Oscars were matched with the 2011 Oscars for the third worst the Academy Awards has done in MM ratings since the last time Rock fronted the gig in 2005 – only 2009’s 23.3 and 2008’s 21.9 were lower.

The 2005 Oscars were the best the show has done in the past decade with a 30.1/43 MM rating. That high has also remained true in later numbers for the show. With Million Dollar Baby winning Best Picture, the 2005 Oscars ended up with a massive 42.14 million viewers and 19.6 million among adults 18-49. In both categories, that was a dip from 2004’s results. Compared to the last time Rock hosted 11-years ago, last night’s 8:30 – midnight show was down 23% in metered market results.

Last year’s Oscars ended up with 37.3 million total viewers and an 11.0/26 rating in the key demo. That was the lowest performance among adults 18-49 since 2008 and the lowest viewership since 2009. We will update with more numbers from last night’s Oscars as they come in.

[wardaddy]

I agree

I miss Carson and Niven

Even Billy Crystal

Talking about hamfisted movies

One of the worst was Joe

Remember that one
CV
The Oscars folks are dying rapidly

It’s gonna get worse

More like TV commercials

Horribly pc

By the way

I’m watching Connection.... Last year French....subtitled for me...i wish I spoke French....I’m running out if time

It’s damn good

And I just finished Wolf Hall about Tom Cromwell from masterpiece BBC via PBS

All on Apple TV

It was spellbinding

Ditto the new Poldark

Wifey loves Vinyl....cannavale gets her worked up

Perfect strategy for me.....prime her with amaretto and watch vinyl and then put depeche mode or Chris Cornell on and it’s on

Only thing works better is martinis and 9 and 1/2 weeks..

You can leave yer hat on!

My baby boy again digs westerns

We watched cat dancing the other nite with Burt and Sarah miles

He had to cover his eyes a bit

Sarah miles was actually pretty sexy

Great hair

[wardaddy]

She had big boobs

Brando could act a chemistry 101 exam but boy was he odd

He still marvels as Corleone ....with the cool old Pendleton ombre button up shirts and gabardines and hat schooling Michael in his final days
Knowing he’s running out of time and the last one he ever wanted for that life is obviously the best choice and the most like daddy

Since the best work ever filmed