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Green Book

On a night where Spike Lee turned his back on Green Book‘s Best Picture victory, the 91st Academy Awards will likely ultimately be remembered most for going hostless and getting a ratings bounce .

The Favourite‘s Olivia Colman shocked and delighted the crowd with her Best Actress win and her wonderful speech, and early numbers indicate viewers at home were taken with the ABC broadcast itself too.

Running around three hours and 21 minutes, Sunday’s Oscars snared a 21.6/36 in metered markets results in the 8 – 11:15 PM ET slot.

For the first time in several years, that’s a distinct rise for the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences’ show. In fact, in an era when awards shows across the board have been taking viewership and demographic hit, last night’s Oscars was up 14.3% over last year’s Jimmy Kimmel-hosted affair.

Now, of course, numbers can be fluid and we won’t have a full sense of how this will truly settle out until we see the final viewership later today. For instance, of the 56 markets that report the early numbers, Nielsen results from Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Columbus and Buffalo are delayed.

However, at this point, down 4% from the Best Picture debacle of 89th Academy Awards in the early numbers, the 91st Academy Awards looks to be close to the Jon Stewart-hosted 80th Academy Awards.

With a 21.9 in the early metrics, that February 24, 2008 event was the all-time low in the before last year’s stumble. In a very different era of television, that ceremony on the Disney-owned network saw No Country For Old Men take the Best Picture and around 32.0 million tune in.

Even though right now, last night’s Oscars are the second lowest ever, getting near those kind of 2008 audience numbers would prove a win for the much criticized AMPAS and ABC. Especially as the time conscious net had to quell nervous advertisers this year after the Oscars fell beneath 32 million viewers and a 21.0 meter market rating for the first time last year.

On a night that also saw The Walking Dead on AMC and the Season 3 finale of True Detective on HBO also, we’ll update with more Oscar ratings later. BTW, the latest run of True Detective starred Green Book‘s Mahershala Ali, who won his second Oscar for Supporting Actor in three years last night. Besides Colman and Ali, the other top acting categories went to Bohemian Rhapsody‘s Rami Malek for Best Actor and If Beale Street Could Talk‘s Regina King for Supporting Actress.

With that, while we await the final numbers for last night’s show, here is look at how the Academy Awards have performed in the 21st century so far, who won Best Picture and who hosted:

2019: TBD, Green Book (No host)
2018: 26.5 million, The Shape of Water (Jimmy Kimmel)
2017: 32.9 million, Moonlight (Jimmy Kimmel)
2016: 34.4 million, Spotlight (Chris Rock)
2015: 37.3 million, Birdman (Neil Patrick Harris)
2014: 43.7 million, 12 Years a Slave (Ellen DeGeneres)
2013: 40.3 million, Argo (Seth MacFarlane)
2012: 39.3 million, The Artist (Billy Crystal)
2011: 37.9 million, The King’s Speech (Anne Hathaway/James Franco)
2010: 41.3 million, The Hurt Locker (Steve Martin/Alec Baldwin)
2009: 36.3 million, Slumdog Millionaire (Hugh Jackman)
2008: 32.0 million, No Country For Old Men (Jon Stewart)
2007: 40. 2 million, The Departed (Ellen DeGeneres)
2006: 38.9 million, Crash (Jon Stewart)
2005 42.1 million, Million Dollar Baby (Chris Rock)
2004: 43.5 million, The Lord Of The Rings: The Return of the King (Billy Crystal)
2003: 33.0 million, Chicago (Steve Martin)
2002: 41.8 million, A Beautiful Mind (Whoopi Goldberg)
2001: 42.9 million, Gladiator (Steve Martin)