This year’s Academy Awards made history in more ways than making Halle Berry the first black woman to receive the Best Actress Award.
Not only was the show the longest Oscars presentation ever (four hours and 16 minutes), but it was also the Oscars’ lowest household rating turnout (25.4 rating, 42 share), Reuters reports.
Preliminary Nielsen ratings point to a 3 percent drop from last year, including the 18-49 age demographic (which fell to 16.1, down 10 percent from last year).
But not all was lost.
The Oscars can still boast fourth place as the highest-rated telecast of the season, with viewership totaling about 41.8 million people. The Super Bowl (86.8 million), the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics (45.6 million) and the Games’ women’s figure-skating long program (43.3 million) are the only TV programs to beat it thus far.
