Oscars Ratings Down 16 Percent, '500' Up 30 Percent

In “fast national” results from Nielsen for Sunday night, ABC’s telecast of the Academy Awards averaged 36.6 million viewers and a 10.8 rating in adults 18-49 — declines of 16% and 18% respectively from last year (43.7 million and 13.1).

The total-viewer count is the event’s lowest in six years, according to Variety.

Despite the declines, the Oscars were the top-rated entertainment telecast in the 51 weeks since last year’s show. By comparison, the Oscars outdrew the Grammy Awards on CBS by 30% in 18-49 (10.8 vs. 8.3) and by 11.8 million total viewers (36.6 million vs. 24.8 million), and they topped the Golden Globe Awards on NBC by 86% in the demo and by 17.3 million total viewers (36.6 million vs. 19.3 million).

This year’s Oscars ceremony has joined other award shows from this television season in posting year-over-year ratings declines, down 10% in the overnights from last year’s decade-best score.

The Academy Awards also dominate the weekly Nielsen-Twitter Top 10...Nielsen’s Twitter TV ratings show that just 5.9 million tweets about the Oscars were sent this year, down 47% on the 11.2 million Oscars-related tweets in 2014.

Series And Special 2/16-2/22 (Click To Enlarge)

Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings Weekly Top Ten lists are ranked by Unique Audience and include four metrics for each of the top Series and Specials episodes and Sports Events airings.

Tweets - Tweets ascribed to a linear TV episode.
Unique Authors – Unique Twitter accounts that have sent at least one Tweet ascribed to a specific TV episode.
Impressions - The number of times any Tweets ascribed to a TV episode were seen.
Unique Audience - The total number of distinct Twitter accounts accruing at least one impression of one or more different Tweets ascribed to a TV episode.

Sports 2/16-2/22 (Click to Enlarge)

Meanwhile, The Daytona 500 on Fox bounced back Sunday from last year's rain-drenched ratings.

The 500 put up a 7.3 household rating, a 30 percent increase from last year's 5.6, according to early ratings. The race peaked from 4:30 to 5 p.m. when the rating was 8.8.

Joey Logano won his first 500 at Daytona International Speedway, and at 24, he became the second-youngest winner of the race.