UPDATED: ABC’s broadcast of “The 97th Oscars” on Sunday, March 2 was the most-watched and highest-rated program of the night, pulling in a 4.54 rating among Adults 18-49 and 19.693 million viewers, marking a five-year high for the awards show in both categories.
Compared to the earlier reported fast nationals (18.07 million viewers), Final Live+Same Day viewing figures indicate an additional 1.645 million viewers tuned into the Academy Awards this year, primarily driven by younger viewers using mobile/tablet and PC devices.
Additionally, in the key Adults 18-49 demo, the show was up from its initially reported 3.92 rating and up another +19% from the program’s performance last year (4.54 rating vs. 3.82 rating). Meanwhile, among Adults 18-34, the Oscars saw a significant increase among younger viewers, particularly younger males, rising remarkably over the 2024 telecast (+28%, 3.92 rating vs. 3.05 rating) and hitting a six-year high (since 2/24/19).
Overall, the Oscars now stands as the most-watched and highest-rated primetime entertainment program of the 2024-2025 television season, and was the most social program of the season for the first time on record (104.2 million), topping last month’s broadcasts of “The 67th Annual Grammy Awards” on CBS (102.2 million) and “Super Bowl LIX” on FOX (62.4 million).
Overall, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences noted that the Oscars saw an increase of +82% year-over-year in social engagement across all platforms, including Hulu, where it streamed live for the first time, reaching 64 million likes, comments and shares.
The ASL livestream on the official Oscars YouTube channel received 1.4 million views.
Immediately following the Oscars, ABC broadcast a 30-minute preview of the upcoming season of “American Idol,” which was viewed by 5.93 million viewers and earned a 0.84 rating among Adults 18-49. The post-Oscars viewing was the talent competition series’ best performance for a season launch in three years (since February 27, 2022) among Total Viewers and Adults 18-49.
On Sunday, March 9, at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT, “American Idol” officially kicks off its eighth season on ABC, with episodes available to stream the next day on Hulu.