It took less time for The Revenant’s main character Hugh Glass to crawl his way to safety after a vicious grizzly attack than it did for the 88th Academy Awards to cross the finish line, yet Canadians showed no sign of leaving one of the year’s most popular TV events for dead.
Sunday’s Oscars telecast, which featured a long-awaited Best Actor win for The Revenant’s star Leonardo DiCaprio, a brilliant opening monologue by host Chris Rock and the usual assortment of lame “bits” – including a baffling appearance by Fox News contributor and former Clueless star Stacey Dash – was CTV’s most-watched since 2014, with an average of 5.5 million viewers 2+ tuning in, according to preliminary numbers from Numeris.
Nearly 13 million Canadians watched at least a portion of the three-and-a-half hour telecast, according to CTV owner Bell Media. The telecast led the day in total viewers as well as in key demos, with ratings up in both the adult 25-54 (+10%) and adult 18-49 (+6%) demographics.
Viewership peaked at 6.2 million people at 10:31 p.m., when host Chris Rock talked to moviegoers in Compton, CA, just prior to Bridge of Spies star Mark Rylance winning the Best Supporting Actor award.
The Canadian Oscar ratings were in stark contrast to the U.S., where the 34.3 million viewers for the ABC telecast represented an eight-year low and the third-lowest viewership ever.
Back in Canada, E!’s Oscars pre-show, Live from the Red Carpet: The 2016 Academy Awards, averaged 252,000 viewers. In total E!’s Countdown to the Red Carpet, Live from the Red Carpet and E! After Party specials reached close to 1.4 million Canadians.
The Oscars were also an online ratings hit for CTV, with authenticated live stream views of the telecast up 73% over last year and the Oscars.CTV.ca site seeing a 50% jump in page views and a 65% increase in visits.
