Looking at the overall growth for the 2013 Academy Awards telecast on ABC, one might quibble with host Seth MacFarlane’s potential impact, but figures for this year’s Oscars suggest a particularly big bump among MacFarlane-friendly target demos.
Overall, the Oscars rose to 40.3 million viewers, a three percent bump from last year and the show’s biggest audience since 2010. The broadcast was also up 11 percent among adults 18-49 to a 13.0 rating.
The numbers get even better then you start lowering the age range. The Oscars were up by 20 percent among adults 18-34, with an 11.3 rating. Probably MacFarlane earns more credit for that than the Academy does for nominating “Amour” for Best Picture. Want numbers that look even more kindly on the “Family Guy” creator? The Oscars were up 34 percent among men 18-34 and 16 percent among men 18-49.
ABC is particularly pleased by the margin-of-victory for the Oscars over the other high-profile award shows this spring, with the Oscars beating the Golden Globes by 20.6 million viewers and by 103 percent among adults 18-49 and after a tight race against the Grammys in 2012, the Oscars beat the Grammys by 11.9 million viewers and by 29 percent among adults 18-49 this year.
The Oscars went long and helped boost “Jimmy Kimmel Live: After the Oscars” to 5.79 million viewers, including 2.03 million among adults 18-49. That makes it Kimmel’s largest post-Oscars audience and the program’s second -largest audience ever, after the 2006 post-Super Bowl episode.