Oscars get audience bump from 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer,' but ratings aren't quite a blockbuster
“Barbenheimer” brought a bump not a boom to Oscars ratings
By ANDREW DALTON
Published - Mar 11, 2024, 09:30 PM ET
Last Updated - Mar 11, 2024, 09:30 PM EDT
LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Barbenheimer” brought a bump not a boom to Oscars ratings.
An estimated 19.5 million people watched Sunday night's 96th Academy Awards ceremony on ABC. That's the biggest number drawn by the telecast in four years.
But that upward trend comes from an all-time low during the pandemic, and is up just 4% from last year's estimated audience of 18.7 million, according to numbers released Monday by ABC.
The Academy experimented with scheduling this year's show an hour earlier, and for the first time in years had many nominations for huge hit movies that viewers had actually seen — “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.”