OSCARS
ROCKY RATINGS As we near 100 years of the Oscars (2024 was its 96th anniversary) and celebrate 75 years of the Emmys, it’s time to reflect on the award show as both a well-established industry tradition and high-traffic broadcast occasion. Though viewership for the Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes and Grammys is down from five years ago, most are back on the up, with all but the Emmys topping last year’s numbers. This year’s Emmys were arguably doomed from the start, having been rescheduled from September to January due to the Hollywood strikes. Worse yet, they aired on a Monday night – a strange choice for a major award ceremony – and a national holiday (MLK Day). The Oscars still rakes in the most viewers of all, with 19.5 million tuning in to 2024’s ceremony (upping last year’s 18.7 million). The Oscars’ highest recorded viewership was 57.2 million in 1998, when Titanic , As Good as It Gets , Good Will Hunting and LA Confidential swept the major categories. Though even Barbenheimer couldn’t top this, there is some link between this record-breaking number and Titanic ’s box office performance – it was the highest-grossing film between 1998 and 2010.
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EMMYS
SHOW-DOWN Sport arguably carries live TV, keeping audiences away from turning entirely to streaming. Most award shows take place on a Sunday night – the same night the NFL, NBA, NHL and/or MLB may have a match. When the shows must compete with sports, they tend to lose. Broadcasting a game right before an award show is one way to win an audience – if the same network is covering both events. Broadcasting a game during an award show on a different network has proven to pull viewers away. This year, the Emmys fell during an Eagles-Buccaneers playoff game and the Iowa Republican caucuses (part of the US presidential election). While the Emmys saw 4.3 million viewers, the NFL game had over 28 million.
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