Sunday TV Ratings 4/25/21: 93rd Oscars Crash to All-Time Low (UPDATED)

Preliminary Analysis: The aggressive rejection of award shows continued with the 93rd edition of 'The Oscars' (1.7). ABC's telecast of the ceremony was an unsettling 68% below the 92nd showcase back in February 2020 (5.3), a number that was already on the lower-end for the film gala. In total viewers, this ceremony posted a measly 8.4 million, down 65% from the year-ago 23.6 million. While these numbers will definitely rise a bit after final adjustments, they will still pale in comparison to the glory days of 'The Oscars'. Earlier in the evening, the 7pm 'Into the Spotlight' special (0.9) was roughly 44% behind the 'Red Carpet' special (1.6) from last year.

The other networks were mostly in repeat-mode, unwilling to compete with the once powerful production. CBS's '60 Minutes' (0.4) was the only non-'Oscars' original and lost two-tenths from its last episode. Repeats of 'The Equalizer' (0.3), recently-renewed 'NCIS: Los Angeles' (0.3), and 'NCIS: New Orleans' (0.2) populated the remaining hours. NBC got decent mileage out of the 2017 film 'The Fate of the Furious' (0.3). This result was about on-par with a typical episode of 'Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist'. The feature-film was preceded by an encore of 'Ellen's Game of Games' (0.2). Fox had an entire night of animation reruns (0.2/0.2/0.3/0.3/0.3/0.3), with the 7:30pm encore of 'Bless the Harts' (0.2) outperforming an original episode from April 4th (0.11). The CW went with repeats of 'World's Funniest Animals' (0.1) and 'Masters of Illusion' (0.1).

Finals Update: 'The Oscars' (+0.4), '60 Minutes' (+0.1), and 'The Fate of the Furious' (+0.1) adjusted up. 'Oscars: Into the Spotlight' (-0.2) adjusted down. This means that this 'Oscars' ceremony (2.12) was down 60% from the previous in the 18-49 demo, a drop slightly larger than 'The Grammys' (2.28; -58%). In viewership, it shed 56% but was able to cross the 10 million mark.

Time	Show	18-49 Rating/Share	Viewers (mil)	Network
7 PM	Oscars: Into the Spotlight	0.66/5	4.40	ABC
	60 Minutes	0.46/4	7.19	CBS
	Ellen's Game of Games (R)	0.24/2	1.57	NBC
	The Simpsons (R)	0.23/2	0.88	Fox
7:30 PM	Bless the Harts (R)	0.19/2	0.70	Fox
8 PM	The Oscars	2.12/14	10.40	ABC
	The Fate of the Furious	0.35/2	1.49	NBC
	The Equalizer (R)	0.31/2	3.79	CBS
	The Simpsons (R)	0.30/2	0.92	Fox
	World's Funniest Animals (R)	0.06/0	0.62	The CW
8:30 PM	The Great North (R)	0.27/2	0.79	Fox
9 PM	NCIS: Los Angeles (R)	0.28/2	3.39	CBS
	Bob's Burgers (R)	0.27/2	0.80	Fox
	Masters of Illusion (R)	0.08/1	0.50	The CW
9:30 PM	Family Guy (R)	0.30/2	0.96	Fox
	Masters of Illusion (R)	0.09/1	0.49	The CW
10 PM	NCIS: New Orleans (R)	0.21/2	2.97	CBS