(Los Angeles) The Oscars desperately needed to straighten out a plummeting audience: they won their bet on Sunday evening, helped in spite of themselves by the spectacular slap in the face by Will Smith on comedian Chris Rock, attracting more than 15 million Americans in front of their screen.
Posted at 3:37 p.m.
The provisional audience figures, revealed by the ABC channel which broadcast the gala evening, recorded a clear rebound compared to the 9.85 million spectators last year, a historically low level.
With 15.36 million Sunday evening, it is still the second worst performance of the Oscars since they are broadcast on television.
Will Smith, crowned best actor for King Richardand reluctantly Chris Rock have contributed a lot to boost the popularity of the show.
Images showing the actor slapping the comedian on stage, who had just made a joke about the shaved head of his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, spread on social networks at the speed of light. Monday morning, there were countless memes, montages and other comments taking sides for one or the other.
This resumption of the Oscar hearing echoes that recorded last September for the Emmy Awards ceremony and more recently that of the prizes awarded by the union of American actors.
In 2021, many prizes and festivals were reduced by the COVID-19 pandemic to organizing events in small groups or in virtual format, which had not aroused great enthusiasm on the part of the public.
Last year, the Oscars had thus suffered a drop in audience of more than 50% compared to the 23.6 million spectators in 2020. This classic broadcast format is being undermined by the rise in power of social networks and new on-demand viewing habits, particularly among the youngest.
To try to seduce the latter, the producers of the Oscars have tried to introduce innovations, such as the pre-registration of prizes in the technical categories (sound, costumes, etc.) or the creation of an “audience prize” with a vote through Twitter.
Ironically, the film that triumphed on Sunday evening by receiving the supreme Oscar for best feature film is CODAa small independent film broadcast on Apple TV+, a historic victory for a streaming.
Official viewership figures are due out on Tuesday.