As the curtain has closed on the 2021-2022 awards season, the telecasts are showing varying degrees of rebound from their quite dismal ratings from last year — but most are not coming close to pre-pandemic viewership levels despite returning to in-person ceremonies and all of the year’s biggest stars in attendance.
Last month’s Oscars — including that Slap Heard Round the World — posted the biggest bounce-back in viewership of all the major awards shows. The broadcast drew 16.6 million live plus same day viewers, a 58% increase from the all-time low of 10.4 million viewers for the scaled-back ceremony in 2021.
Still, this year’s show was 30% under the then all-time low of 23.6 million total viewers for the 2020 ceremony — which took place just about a month prior to the beginning of COVID lockdowns in many parts of the world.
Live + seven-day numbers look even more favorable for the Oscars. ABC reported this week that the March 27 telecast had jumped to 18.4 million total viewers. It’s safe to assume that at least some of that delayed viewing came from latecomers wanting to see Will Smith smack Chris Rock on stage.
Last Sunday’s Grammys, on the other hand, had the lowest uptick in viewership this year, compared to the Oscars and the Emmys. The Recording Academy’s show drew an audience of 9.6 million, according to final time-zone adjusted live plus same day Nielsen numbers (which includes out-of-home viewing data).
The telecast was up about 3% in viewership compared to 2021, when a record-low 9.3 million people watched the ceremony — less than half the 18.8 million total viewers who tuned in back in 2020.
The Emmys actually saw its highest viewership in several years during its last telecast in 2021, even surpassing its pre-pandemic 2019 numbers. The 73rd annual show managed to bounce back about 16% in viewers, increasing from 6.4 million in 2020 to 7.4 million in 2021.
That’s more viewers than in 2019, when about 6.9 million people tuned in. Last season, the Emmys was the only awards show that managed to escape a crater in ratings.
However, the show did take a large blow in 2019, declining steeply from the 10.2 million viewers it lured in 2018. Additionally, the Television Academy’s ceremony has remained the least watched of the major awards shows over the past six years.
It remains to be seen how the Oscars will fare in the long run and if viewership will continue to rebound. As recently as 2017, the ceremony was securing north of 30 million viewers, meaning that the audience has essentially been cut in half.
The 74th annual Emmy Awards are set to air Sept. 12 on NBC. The ceremony will likely be the next indicator of whether or not awards show ratings are destined for a complete rebound or will be more permanently tempered.
The Golden Globes didn’t have a telecast this year, since NBC canceled its plans to broadcast the ceremony after the Los Angeles Times exposed systemic problems at the organization behind the awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. It remains unclear if the show will return to broadcast TV in 2023.
