UK coverage of the 97th Oscars on ITV reached a peak of 1.1 million viewers - down on the 1.9 million peak of 2024, but still significantly higher than when the ceremony aired on Sky.
The 1.1 million peak came at the start of the broadcast, which ran from 22:30 GMT on Sunday (March 2) until 03:45 on Monday (March 3).
The show averaged 565,000 viewers on ITV1, with streaming numbers from the broadcaster’s ITVX platform not yet available.
This is 11.3% down on the 637,000 average from the 2024 ceremony, when interest was high due to the Barbenheimer phenomenon. However, this year’s figures were 507.5% up on the 93,000 average from 2023, when Sky broadcast the ceremony.
ITV took UK broadcast rights to the Academy Awards in 2024, making them free-to-air in the country for the first time.
This year’s broadcast was comfortably surpassed at the start of its timeslot by the BBC News on BBC1 but then matched BBC1’s broadcast of 2003 film Calendar Girls from 22:50, overtaking it around midnight.
The ITV show was hosted by Jonathan Ross, whose previous film duties included hosting the BBC’s Film… programme from 1999 to 2010. Guests with Ross included The White Lotus star Jason Isaacs for the first half of the programme; TV presenter Elle Osili-Wood; and journalist Mariella Frostrup.
Ratings for the US broadcast increased 1% this year, reaching a five-year high of 19.7 million including mobile, PC and tablet viewing.
Conan O’Brien hosted the show for the first time, with comedy-drama Anora the big winner on the night, taking five awards including four for writer-director-editor Sean Baker and best actress for Mikey Madison.
No comments yet