2024 Oscars Ratings Highest in 4 Years

The 96th annual Academy Awards earned the telecast's highest ratings in four years, likely suggesting that audience interest was goosed by the presence of Barbie and Oppenheimer, two of the year's biggest movies, which each got several nominations. An estimated 19.5 million people watched the telecast, marking about a 4% rise in its total ratings. Still, the news wasn't all good, as the numbers dropped by 5% in the "adults 18-49" demographic that's most sought-after by advertisers. Some of the younger audience may have been turned off by the seeming inevitability of an Oppenheimer sweep. While the movie itself was obviously a huge hit, the Oscars didn't have much suspense on their side, coming at the tail end of an awards season where Oppenheimer has swept nearly every other awards show.

Barbie was also represented by music performed during the ceremony itself, and the actual Oscars seemed designed with at least a little bit of virality in mind because they were chock full of moments like Batman squaring off with the Penguin and John Cena showing up naked.

The 2021 Oscars, which happened during the early days of the pandemic, drew an all-time low 10.4 million viewers, and the Oscars have been bouncing back since, with 2024 marking the third consecutive year of overall audience growth (thanks to Variety for crunching all the numbers). They still haven't bounced back fully -- the 2020 telecast drew 23 million viewers, which itself was down 6 million from the 2019 Oscars.

Oppenheimer beat out American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Past Lives, Poor Things, and The Zone of Interest for Best Picture, and took home awards for Christopher Nolan, Cillian Murphy, and Robert Downey, Jr. 

As noted, it was hardly a surprise to see Nolan's film taking home the Oscar for Best Picture after its incredibly successful awards season. The film has earned many awards, including the BAFTA Award for Best Film, the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama, and much more. In fact, the film has won over 300 awards since its release.

Barbie earned an award for Best Original Song (for "What Was I Made For?"), and Ryan Gosling had the biggest moment of the night with an epic performance of "I'm Just Ken."