TV Ratings: Oscars Win The Week

Viewership for the Oscars rebounded from the second-lowest on record to the third-lowest. ABC’s telecast of Sunday’s three-hour, 17-minute ceremony from the Dolby Theatre averaged 18.755 million viewers, according to The L-A Times citing live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen.

Viewership was up 12.47% from the 2022 ceremony, which averaged 16.675 million viewers. The 2021 ceremony has the record low, 10.403 million, part of a sharp decline in viewership for award shows during the coronavirus pandemic, when they were held in months they were usually not scheduled for and had format changes prompted by COVID-related restrictions.

The Academy Awards ceremonies held since 2018 are the only ones on record to average fewer than 30 million viewers. Individual viewership figures have been kept since 1974. The Oscars have aired on ABC each year since 1976, and the network’s contract with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to air them runs through 2028.

Sunday’s ceremony was the most-watched awards show since the 2020 Oscars, which averaged 23.639 million viewers.

The Oscars gave ABC its first weekly ratings victory of the 25-week-old 2022-23 prime-time television series, averaging 5.04 million viewers between March 6 and Sunday. CBS finished second after five first-place finishes in six weeks, averaging 3.93 million viewers. NBC was third, averaging 3.04 million viewers.

The CBS comedy “Young Sheldon” was the only program not related to the Oscars to average more than 7 million viewers, averaging 7.658 million, third for the week.

ABC’s highest-rated non-Oscars program was its drama about Seattle firefighters, “Station 19,” which was 21st for the week, averaging 3.975 million viewers.

The first two episodes of the spring season of the singing competition “The Voice” were NBC’s top two programs. The two-hour season premiere March 6 averaged 6.436 million viewers, fifth for the week, while the hourlong blind auditions episode the following night averaged 5.121 million viewers, 12th for the week.

Fox averaged 2.14 million viewers. The first original episode of the procedural drama “9-1-1” since Nov. 28 was its ratings leader, finishing 13th for the week, averaging 4.954 million viewers.

The top 20 prime-time programs consisted of the Oscars and two red-carpet programs preceding it; nine CBS scripted programs, its newsmagazine “60 Minutes” and its alternative series “Survivor”; two editions of the NBC singing competition “The Voice”; three Fox programs, “9-1-1,” its spinoff, “9-1-1: Lone Star” and the singing competition “The Masked Singer”; and the March 7 edition of the Fox News Channel political talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

📺BROADCAST EVENING NEWS

ABC's David Muir, CBS' Norah O'Donnell, NBC's Lester Holt

A different week, yet the trend remained the same: ABC World News Tonight with David Muir was the top-rated evening newscast.

With its week of March 6, 2023 win, ABC News’ evening offering has now defeated its competition from NBC and CBS 223 of the past 224 weeks in average total viewers—and 152 of the last 154 weeks among Adults 25-54. World News Tonight also finished the week as U.S. TV’s most-watched show across broadcast and cable — marking four consecutive weeks at No. 1 in average total viewers.

According to live plus same day data from Nielsen, World News Tonight averaged 8.4 million total linear viewers for the week of March 6, a +32,000 viewer gain (+.04%) from the previous week, along with 1.3 million viewers from the key A25-54 demo.

Meanwhile TV Newser reports NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt held pretty steady in total audience relative to the week prior. The newscast averaged 7.07 million total viewers on linear for the week of March 6, making it the third-most-watched regularly-scheduled show of the week—excluding sports, specials and syndication.The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 4.97 million total viewers this past week, a -3% drop from the previous week and -5% vs. the year-ago week.

📺LATE NIGHT TV

Graphic Courtesy of RoadMN

📺CABLE TV

The five highest-ranked prime-time cable programs were editions of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” topped by the Tuesday broadcast, which averaged 4.136 million viewers, 19th overall. Fox News Channel won the cable network battle in prime time for the seventh consecutive week, averaging 2.199 million viewers. ESPN was second for the third consecutive week, averaging 1.285 million. MSNBC finished third for the fourth consecutive week following a second-place finish, averaging 1.053 million.

The cable top 20 consisted of 14 Fox News Channel weeknight talk shows (five broadcasts each of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “Hannity” and four of “The Ingraham Angle”); ESPN’s coverage of Duke’s 59-49 victory over Virginia in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship and the 22-minute scoreboard show preceding it and following Texas’ 76-56 victory over Kansas in the Big 12 Tournament championship; History’s “The Curse of Oak Island”; the MSNBC news and opinion program “The Rachel Maddow Show”; and the first two hourlong segments of the USA Network’s “WWE Raw.”

Graphics Courtesy of RoadMN

In terms of individual programming, Tucker Carlson Tonight moved to No.1 in total viewers. The sharp audience increases are likely due (in least in part) to the Jan. 6 insurrection tape release broadcasts. TCT averaged 3.57 million total viewers at 8 p.m. last week, the show’s largest average total audience since November 2022, according to TV Newser.

The Five came in second with an average of 3.08 million viewers at 5 p.m. during the week of March 6. Jesse Watters Primetime remained third (2.695 million at 7 p.m.), with Hannity (2.645 million at 9 p.m.), and Special Report with Bret Baier (2.27 million at 6 p.m.) rounding out the top five.

Carlson continues to draw the most adults 25-54 on cable news, averaging 469,000 viewers from the measurement this past week. The Five came in second with 330,000 viewers at 5 p.m., with Hannity (317,000) Gutfeld! (308,000) and Jesse Watters Primetime (277,000) rounding out the top five in the key A25-54 demo.

Fox News had the 10-most-watched cable news shows, 13 of the top 15, and 86 of the 100 most-watched telecasts for the week of March 6. MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell moves up one spot to No. 11 with 1.37 million at 10 p.m., and The Beat with Ari Melber improved to No. 13 with 1.35 million at 6 p.m.

📺STREAMING TV

The season finale of “The Last of Us” set another ratings high on Sunday night, delivering 8.2 million viewers across HBO Max and linear telecasts, based on Nielsen and first-party data, according to a statement released Monday by Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming.

“The Glory” was Netflix’s most-streamed program, with viewers spending 124.46 million hours watching the 16 episodes of the South Korean revenge thriller, including the second eight episodes of the first season that were made available Friday, according to figures released Tuesday by the streaming service.

“Luther: The Fallen Sun” was Netflix’s most popular movie, with viewers watching the continuation of the BBC psychological crime thriller for 65.92 million hours the first three days it was available.