The Oscars Are the Gold Standard for American Award Shows

While the Oscars may have lost some of their appeal in recent years, the biggest prize of the movie industry is still the most important entertainment award show in the calendar, at least in the United States but probably internationally as well. And what better way to gauge a major TV event’s appeal than to look at its viewership figures and its attractiveness to advertisers.

According to Kantar Media, total ad spending during the Academy Awards show amounted to $114 million in the U.S. last year, leaving the Grammy Awards ($57 million) and the Golden Globes ($52 million) far behind. On average, advertisers had to shell out $1.99 million per 30-second spot during last year’s Oscars broadcast, which is less than half of what Super Bowl advertisers pay but considerably more than what brands have to pay at the Grammys and the Golden Globes.

Last year, Oscar viewership bounced back from 2018's all-time low with 29.6 million people tuning in on average. While that's still far off previous highs (more than 46 million Americans watched the award ceremony in 2000), it's still far ahead of its fellow award shows, as the following chart shows.