Initial numbers for last night’s Oscars were close to 19 million. That’s up from last year, and the biggest numbers of all awards shows this season. ABC says total viewers came to 18.7 mil, up 12% from last year.
The Academy Awards brought in three times the number of the Golden Globes from back in January, too.
The show was so well produced and moving, and funny, that there will surely be a lot of delayed viewing before the finals come in tomorrow.
Jimmy Kimmel should definitely return next year. He got high marks from everyone I spoke to during the show and afterwards at the sensational Governor’s Ball, where the actual “governors” — the boards of directors — were ecstatic with how things had gone.
It helped that most of the show’s participants rode the escalators to the big ballroom, where power players like “Top Gun” producer Jerry Bruckheimer and all the actors lined up at the dozen so Wolfgang Puck food stations for mouth watering dishes including mini flat “Oscars” of smoked salmon, and very high calorie desserts that will send all the guests to the gym this morning!
So it’s great news ratings-wise, as the Oscars make a comeback from the pandemic. Next year, presumably, Very Big Movies will be on the agenda, and even higher numbers!
Here’s Lady Gaga’s extraordinary performance:
