Sunday's Oscars viewership hits four-year high on ABC

Sunday's Oscars telecast that honoured atomic bomb drama "Oppenheimer" reached a four-year high in viewership with an average audience of roughly 19.5 million on ABC, the Walt Disney-owned network said on Monday.

The audience grew 4 per cent from last year, when 18.8 million people watched the film industry's highest honours.

Oppenheimer, the blockbuster biopic about the race to build the first atomic bomb, won seven awards on Sunday, including best picture.

On social media, the Oscars ranked as the No. 1 programme on Sunday night, generating 28.5 million interactions, also roughly 4 per cent above last year, ABC said.

The #Oscars hashtag was the top trending topic in the United States on X throughout the telecast, and the most-used hashtag on X worldwide on Sunday, the network added.

Jimmy Kimmel returned to host the ceremony, and the show earned generally positive reviews. The festivities started an hour earlier than usual, a move designed to capture more viewers.

"It turns out that great wins, emotional speeches, Ryan Gosling singing... are all you need to produce a great Academy Awards ceremony," wrote Kevin Fallon of The Daily Beast.

The show celebrated two of last year's highest-grossing films, Oppenheimer and feminist doll adventure Barbie. It featured memorable musical numbers, including Gosling dressed in hot pink to perform I'm Just Ken, and comedy bits with John Cena presenting best costume design.

Viewership of many awards ceremonies has dropped in recent years as audiences have ditched traditional television for streaming and social media.

The highest-rated Academy Awards telecast was in 1998, when megahit Titanic swept the honours. More than 57 million people tuned in that year.

In 2021, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Oscar ratings hit their low point with 10.5 million viewers.