TV Ratings: 'The Slap' Was More Of A Social Media Hit

Will Smith’s violent slap of Chris Rock at the Academy Awards appeared to have a negligible impact on the show’s television audience. But the world of social media is a much different story.

ABC said there were some 22.7 million social media interactions during Sunday’s ceremony — the most ever for an Oscars telecast and more than double the 9.5 million recorded from last year’s show.

The telecast as a whole drew 16.6 million viewers, up 58% from the 2021 show that was dramatically scaled back due to the pandemic, reports The Associated Press citing Nielsen data. Yet this year’s show was down 30% from the more typical 2020 broadcast, which had been the second-smallest audience.

Nielsen measures viewership in 15-minute increments, and the 17.3 million viewers during the quarter-hour when Smith’s attack took place was virtually identical to the quarter-hour that followed.

Then the audience dipped to 16.8 million before rising to 17.4 million during the period Smith won his best actor award, Nielsen said.

Led by its NCAA men’s basketball tourney coverage, CBS won the week with an average of 6.2 million in prime time. Despite boasting the Oscars, ABC was second with 5 million. NBC had 2.28 million, Fox had 2.27 million, Univision had 1.5 million, Ion Television had 1.1 million and Telemundo had 960,000.

📺TOP 20 PRIME-TIME SHOWS (TOTAL VIEWERS):

1. “The Academy Awards,” ABC, 16.62 million.

2. NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament: Arkansas vs. Duke, TBS, 10.34 million

3. NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament: St. Peter’s vs. Purdue, CBS, 10.18 million.

4. NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament: North Carolina vs. UCLA, CBS, 8.82 million.

5. NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament: Texas Tech vs. Duke, CBS, 8.23 million.

6. NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament: Arkansas vs. Gonzaga, CBS, 8.16 million.

7. “NCAA Pregame” (Saturday), TBS, 8.04 million.

8. “FBI,” CBS, 8.02 million.

9. “NCAA Pregame” (Thursday), CBS, 7.93 million.

10. “Live From the Red Carpet” (7:27 to 8 p.m.), ABC, 7.73 million.

11.  NCAA Pregame” (Friday), CBS, 7.3 million.

12. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 7.29 million.

13. NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament: Houston vs. Villanova, TBS, 7.1 million.

14. “NCIS,” CBS, 6.65 million.

15. “FBI: International,” CBS, 6.11 million.

16. “FBI: Most Wanted,” CBS, 5.79 million.

17. “The Neighborhood,” CBS, 5.72 million.

18. “Live From the Red Carpet” (6:58 to 7:27 p.m.), ABC, 5.45 million.

19. “Bob Hearts Abishola,” CBS, 5.39 million.

20. “Survivor,” CBS, 5.35 million.

📺THE EVENING NEWS:

ABC’s “World News Tonight” led the evening news ratings race with an average of 8.3 million viewers last week. NBC’s “Nightly News” averaged 6.8 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 4.9 million.

According to TV Newser, ABC’s evening newscast averaged 8.88 million total viewers and 1.66 million adults 25-54 in Q1 ’22. This means World News Tonight has averaged the largest total audience of any evening newscast for 20 consecutive quarters—since Q2 2017.

Additionally, World News Tonight led the evening news landscape for the 8th straight quarter in all key target demos (since Q2 2020), and saw growth in viewers vs. the prior quarter (Q4 ’21), +8% in total viewers and +12% in adults 25-54.

📺LATE NIGHT TV:

📺CABLE TV:

Fox News Channel remained the dominant basic cable network in total day, and came in second place in total primetime viewership during the week of March 21. FNC also averaged more total viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined for the 32nd consecutive week, reports TV Newser.

TBS, also boosted by the NCAAs, led the cable networks with an average of 2.81 million in prime time. Fox News Channel had 2.47 million, MSNBC had 1.12 million, HGTV had 1.11 million and CNN had 876,000.

Graphics Courtesy of RoadMN (w/permission)

On the cable news programming front, Fox News’ The Five was the most-watched show on cable news this past week, averaging 3.51 million total viewers at 5 p.m. Tucker Carlson Tonight (which finished No. 1 last week) took second place in total viewers, averaging 3.45 million, with Hannity (2.95 million), Jesse Watters Primetime (2.825 million) and Special Report with Bret Baier (2.6 million) rounding out the top five in average total viewers.

Fox News had the 13-most-watched cable news shows of the week. MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show (featuring rotating guest hosts) ranked No. 14 in average total viewers (1.54 million). Fox had the 13-most-watched cable news shows among adults 25-54, led by Carlson (600,000). CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 came in at No. 11, averaging 291,000 adults 25-54 at 8 p.m.