via ABC press release:
| ABC's Broadcast of "81st Annual Academy Awards" Qualifies As Television's Most-Watched Entertainment Telecast in 2 Years "Oscars" Jump Year to Year by 4.2 Million Viewers and by 13% in Adults 18-49, ABC's "Academy Awards" Outdraws Other Major Awards Shows This Season by "2009 Oscars" Reach 67.56 Million Unique Viewers Across the United States |
| The "81st Annual Academy Awards" (8:30-11:25 p.m.) ABC's broadcast of the "81st Annual Academy Awards" attracted an average audience of 36.3 million Total Viewers and posted a 12.1 rating among Adults 18-49, based on Nielsen's "Fast National" ratings. The "81st Annual Academy Awards" registered as TV's most-watched entertainment telecast of the 2008-09 TV Season, surpassing the No. 2 telecast by 5.9 million viewers ("American Idol-Tuesday" season premiere on 1/13/09 = 30.4 million). In fact the "Oscars" registered as television's most-watched entertainment telecast in 2 years and highest-rated among Adults 18-49 in 1 year - since 2/25/07 and 2/12/08, respectively. * Year to year, the "Oscars" gained 4.3 million viewers (36.3 million vs. 32.0 million) and grew 13% in Adults 18-49 (12.1 vs. 10.7). The awards show was up across the board demographically (all key Adults/Men/Women), registering its biggest increase over last year among hard-to-reach Men 18-34, jumping by 22% (8.9 vs. 7.3). * ABC's "81st Annual Academy Awards" (36.3 million) towered above other awards shows this season, topping the 2008 "Emmy Awards" by 24.0 million viewers (12.3 million), the 2009 "Golden Globe Awards" by 21.4 million viewers (14.9 million) and the 2009 "Grammy Awards" by 17.3 million viewers (19.0 million). * ABC's "81st Annual Academy Awards" reached 67.56 million unique television viewers across the U.S. - unduplicated Viewers 2+ watching 6-minutes or more during its telecast. "Oscar's Red Carpet 2009" (8:00 - 8:30 p.m.) "Barbara Walters Special" (7:00 - 8:00 p.m.) "Oscar.com" Links to Oscar Night Photography: A note about increasing DVR penetration and year-to-year rating comparisons: Year-to-year rating comparisons based on the Live + Same Day data stream are distorted by the level of DVR penetration in the Nielsen sample, which has jumped up to 30% currently, from 23% at the same point in 2008. More viewers are watching shows on their own timetables, which may not be reflected in the overnight next day numbers. The only truly valid year-to-year comparison would be one based on the Live + 7 Day metric, once those stats are released by Nielsen. Source: Nielsen Media Research (Live + Same Day Fast National Ratings) - 2/22/09. Online "Oscar.com" usage figures based on data from Omniture. |
Am I missing something or is ABC not counting the last half-hour of the broadcast? I watched the whole thing and it ended at roughly midnight on the East Coast but ABC is showing numbers from 8:30-11:25 PM only. Were there no commercials after 11:25PM and thus the last half-hour is considered sustaining and not counted by the Nielsens?
that is a great question, I don’t know the answer, but if I find out anything I’ll post it here.
I can’t understand, how they can have an average of 33.5 millions from 8:30 till 11:00, and then end up with an average of 36.3 million from 8:30 till 11:25.
katka, all the numbers in the post above are subject to revision because of how the measurements are made for live shows. Read “Fast Affiliate Ratings” in the post above.
I don’t believe these #s will be revised very much assuming they are the duration Nielsen goes with, but as I understand it these numbers are time zone adjusted so should be pretty close. Of course that was the case with the Super Bowl time zone adjusted numbers too, and they still wound up going up quite a bit in the finals.
I’m still waiting to hear back from ABC on why it didn’t go from 8:30p-12:00a.
I’m not sure where Katka is getting the average of 33.5 million from 8:30p-11, so it’s hard to comment on that.
Thank you, sorry for stupid question. I thought 29 million was fast affilate, but that one was the average for all night. Sorry again.
I do get the average of the viewership in the table to be 33.57 m, but it is still subject to revision. Edit: As well as the data for the 11pm+ time being added.
btw Doghouse, you were correct in your speculation about the last 35 minutes being sustained. Here is the response from ABC:
As with all live TV events, the program end time is determined by Nielsen as the point in the telecast where the last national commercial spot airs. For the Oscars last night, the final national commercial pod concluded at 11:25pm.
This is extremely interesting…I had no idea ratings for live events were calculated in this way. So for any program that doesn’t have a spike in audiences at the end of the telecast, this would inflate their numbers to a certain degree. How can we compare the Oscars to last year, then, unless we know that the end time was roughly at the same time?
Does anyone have any further info on this (eg. an explanation on Nielsen’s website?)
zzzoe, not sure exactly which part of the calculation you’re referring to, but these fast affiliate ratings are always somewhat inaccurate for live events. The final ratings for the shows have those time zone inaccuracies corrected. If you’re referring to the fact that no ratings are calculated for the portions of shows without national advertising, that happens on a case by case basis, and we don’t have systematic numbers for that.