Oscars black viewership held up BETTER than any other demographic in the overall audience, figures show

  • Entire audience dropped 8% but black viewership slipped just 2%
  • The figures surprised many who thought the #OscarsSoWhite rallying cry had been the cause for such a dramatic drop in viewers
  • Declining interest in movie-going could be pushing Oscars ratings down
  • Golden Globes viewership was also down this year 
  • See full coverage of the Oscars 2016 with more on the diversity row

By Associated Press

Published: 19:40 EST, 1 March 2016 | Updated: 23:01 EST, 2 March 2016

Don't blame the effort to promote an Oscars boycott among blacks because of diversity concerns for the drop in Academy Awards viewership this year.

While the show's viewership dropped eight per cent to 34.4 million - an eight-year low - ratings among black viewers only slipped a marginal two per cent to 3.22 million.

Prior to the Chris Rock-hosted show, anger about a lack of minority nominees for the big awards led to the call for black viewers to tune out. 

It apparently wasn't heeded, or viewers wanted to hear what Rock had to say about the issue — and it was the central theme of his monologue.

Analysts speculate declining interest in movie-going is in fact the main factor behind the drop in viewer ratings. 

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Prior to the Chris Rock-hosted show, anger about a lack of minority nominees for the big awards led to the call for black viewers to tune out. Pictured: Rock delivering his monologue 

Prior to the Chris Rock-hosted show, anger about a lack of minority nominees for the big awards led to the call for black viewers to tune out. Pictured: Rock delivering his monologue 

This year's ratings were down six per cent from last year's Oscars, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, and the lowest overnight ratings since Jon Stewart hosted in 2008.

Within the past decade, the Oscars had a smaller number of black viewers in 2012, 2011, 2009 and 2008, the Nielsen Company said as it released the figures on Tuesday.

So the academy must look to other explanations for the drop; the general theory has been that the popularity of movies up for Oscars is the biggest factor in viewership fluctuations. 

Ratings for the Golden Globes were also down this year. 

Nonetheless, the Oscars enabled ABC to take a rare prime-time win in the Nielsens, as the network averaged 9.4 million viewers. 

CBS had 7.8 million viewers, NBC had 4.4 million, Fox had 4 million, Univision had 1.9 million, the CW had 1.8 million, ION Television had 1.3 million and Telemundo had 1.2 million.

CNN was the week's most popular cable network, averaging 2.36 million in prime time with the help of a Republican presidential debate. 

Fox News Channel had 2.03 million, USA had 1.7 million, HGTV had 1.69 million and TBS had 1.63 million.

NBC's Nightly News topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.91 million viewers. ABC's World News Tonight was second with 8.88 million and the CBS Evening News had 7.7 million viewers.  

THE OSCARSSOWHITE BOYCOTT... AND HOW CHRIS ROCK PLAYED ON IT 

The #OscarsSoWhite boycott, headed by Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith (pictured last month), was initially credited for the ratings tank

The #OscarsSoWhite boycott, headed by Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith (pictured last month), was initially credited for the ratings tank

The #OscarsSoWhite boycott, headed by Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith, was initially credited for the ratings tank.

After the nominees for this year were announced, the Hollywood power couple said they would not be attending the ceremony to draw attention to systemic racism in the movie industry. 

Director Spike Lee also took part in the boycott, instead attending a Knicks basketball game in New York City Sunday night.

Every acting nominee was white for the second year running, a development that led to the OscarsSoWhite backlash.

Chris Rock used his entire opening monologue to school the industry on the lack of opportunities black actors are given in Hollywood.

'Is Hollywood racist? ... you're damn right,' said Rock to the audience in the Dolby Theater while he excoriated the film industry for its racial bias on the biggest night in show business.

Indeed, from almost his very first words to his last, Rock brutalized Hollywood for the lack of diversity, with the host finishing the entire ceremony by saying 'Black Lives Matter'.

'Everyone wants to know in the world, is Hollywood racist?' said Rock. 

'Is it 'burning cross racist'? No. Is it 'fetch me some lemonade racist'? No. It's a different type of racist…. Hollywood is 'sorority racist.' It's like, we like you Rhonda, but you're not a Kappa.' 

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