Whether it be hopes for more Will Smith and Chris Rock-esque drama, the Marvel fandom getting behind Angela Bassett’s nomination, or perhaps an uptick in curiosity to see whether Michelle Yeoh can make Oscars history, there were many draws to this year’s Academy Awards – and early viewership statistics reflect that.
The 2023 Oscars pulled in an audience of 18.7 million this year, which is a 12 percent uptick on the infamous ceremony last year during which Will Smith stormed the stage and assaulted show host Chris Rock, via Variety.
While this year’s ratings were a far cry from the highs of the telecast in 1998 (the year in which Titanic won Best Picture) which drew 55.3 million viewers, it’s still a year-on year improvement, though perhaps now that this year’s ceremony went back to being the tame industry event we’ve always known, it remains to be seen if that momentum can be kept up. After all, the last time the Oscars exceeded 30 million viewers was in 2017, when Moonlight took home Best Picture.
While no extremely gossip-worthy and slap-happy antics transpired in this year’s show, the infamous Will Smith incident was at the very least referenced by this year’s host Jimmy Kimmel, whose opening monologue resulted in perhaps the goofiest grin we’ve ever seen strewn across Andrew Garfield’s face.
Even with the aforementioned lack of drama, the 2023 Oscars still had plenty of memorable moments. Ke Huy Quan’s emotional Best Supporting Actor acceptance comes to mind, as does John Travolta’s heartbreaking In Memoriam intro. Of course, at the pinnacle of it all was Michelle Yeoh’s landmark Best Actress win, in the massive Everything Everywhere All at Once sweep.
Published: Mar 13, 2023 07:05 pm