Sunday’s Academy Awards telecast on CTV attracted 5.2 million viewers according to preliminary overnight data from Numeris, making it the year’s most watched non-sports program.
According to CTV owner Bell Media, nearly one of every two English-speaking Canadians watching TV on Sunday (and early Monday) tuned into the more than three-and-a-half hour telecast.
However, the audience for this year’s show was down by nearly 1 million from 2014, when 6.12 million people – including nearly 14 million unique viewers – tuned in.
In total, nearly 13 million unique viewers watched all or part of Sunday’s telecast, which featured first-time Oscar host Neil Patrick Harris in a turn variously described as “bland” (The New York Times) “lame” (The New York Post) and “glum and low energy” (Time). Which begs the question: What is Billy Crystal doing that’s so important anyway?
However, CTV’s pre-Oscars special, eTalk at the Oscars – which saw anchor Ben Mulroney interview Oscar nominees including Ethan Hawke, Michael Keaton and Patricia Arquette – attracted its largest-ever audience, 1.34 million viewers.
Meanwhile, ABC’s Oscars Opening Ceremony: Live From the Red Carpet was the day’s second most-watched program, attracting 3 million viewers.
CTV’s Academy Awards coverage also continues to find audiences online, with video views of Oscars clips and highlights three times greater than last year. That included 55,000 views of the exclusive press-room camera feed.
