You may have certainly heard about the Oscars making it big on the screen and in turn, breaking several records. The same also took place this year while the Oscars was celebrating its 93rd telecast. However, the records were not broken for the good stuff, mind you. The viewing figures which were received with the Sunday evening’s (April 25) rather flat ceremony were regarded as the lowest, receiving a confirmed disappointing reception.
Considering the audience numbers, a dramatic drop of 58.3% was observed from last year. When it comes to the numbers, the 2021 Oscars just managed to attract at around 9.85 million viewers in the US. This has directly impacted the rating of this year’s Academy Awards. There was nearly a 60% reduction observed in the number of those individuals watching from home and therefore, the ratings paled in comparison to 2020’s 23.6 million.
Now, coming to the 2020’s figures, we all know that we did experience a significant drop here too as the pandemic had just started showing its true colors by then. There was a significant drop then from the 2019 figure of 29.6 million. To this, we got an excuse or rather an answer from the Executive VP of unscripted and alternative entertainment at Walt Disney Television, Rob Mills, who said that one factor may have affected the numbers.
It was related to ending the ceremony with the Best Actor category which according to him, didn’t really pay off. Mills began defending the altered format by saying that it wasn’t just related to he final categories but that the whole show seemed to have been a bit mixed at the time.
