The 2022 Oscars avoided sinking to another new viewership low but still drew the ceremony's second smallest audience to date.
About 15.36 million people tuned into the 2022 Academy Awards on Sunday, a 56 percent increase from the year before, according to Variety. The 2021 Oscars drew about 10 million viewers, an all-time low.
This was the first time the ratings for the Oscars have increased since 2019. But Sunday's telecast drew the second smallest Oscars audience ever, Deadline notes. The 2020 Oscars drew 23.6 million viewers, while nearly 30 million viewers watched the 2019 show.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The 2022 show saw Apple's CODA win Best Picture, becoming the first streaming film to take the top prize. But by far the most talked-about moment came when Will Smith shockingly smacked Chris Rock over a joke about Smith's wife. The moment made for a bizarre final hour as the ceremony continued as usual until Smith won Best Actor and received a standing ovation. It was unclear to what degree the incident may have had an effect on the ratings.
Producers also implemented a number of controversial changes to the ceremony in an attempt to boost ratings, including giving out eight awards before the broadcast and then editing the speeches into the show. The aim was for this to reduce the Oscars' runtime to three hours, but the broadcast still ran nearly 40 minutes over and was actually longer than in 2021.
The Academy also brought back a host for the Oscars for the first time since 2018, and it made an effort to appeal to a wider audience, including by having Twitter users vote on their favorite film of the year. These efforts were widely derided by critics — but the ratings uptick leaves open the possibility the changes could be here to stay.
-
The week's best photosIn Pictures A human pyramid, a church on wheels, and more
-
The Week Unwrapped: Is it time for a new world map?Podcast Plus, why is the pope getting flatmates? And why are seagull 'muggings' on the rise?
-
Ford Ranger Plug-in Hybrid: 'more than just a novelty'The Week Recommends Europe's first plug-in hybrid pickup is 'surprisingly agile'
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
And the Oscar goes to … no one in particular: Movies made with AI can now win awardsUnder the radar Generative AI is no longer a barrier to acclaim
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
Oscars 2025: Anora’s Cinderella triumphFeature The film about a stripper who elopes with the son of a Russian oligarch takes home four Oscars
