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IPFS News Link • Hollywood-Entertainment Industry

Audiences for award shows are in steep decline. This chart shows how far viewership has fallen

• https://www.cnbc.com, Sarah Whitten

Last Sunday, viewership for the annual Oscars telecast plunged to a new low, with 10.4 million people watching to find out which film took home the best picture prize, according to Nielsen data. That's a nearly 56% drop from the 23.6 million viewers that turned on their TVs for the program last year.

The Academy's third hostless show in a row scored a 2.12 rating among adults 18-49, a key demographic for advertisers, a 60% drop from 2020.

The drop in both metrics is not entirely surprising, as award shows, in general, have faced declining viewership in recent years. And few of the nominees were considered mainstream, given movie theaters have been largely shuttered for a year due to the pandemic.

The Emmy Awards, which aired in September, saw the lowest viewership of any such ceremony in the Television Academy's history. The show drew only 5.1 million total viewers, down 14% from last year's event, according to Nielsen.


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