Early ratings for Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremony show a slight increase from last year’s show, which earned the lowest audience ever for the telecast.
Sunday night’s Oscars earned a 7.7 rating in the key demo of 18-49.
Total viewership was 29.6 million viewers.
Those ratings represent an increase of 13 percent in the key demo and 12 percent in overall viewers.
While an increase in viewership is something to celebrate, this year’s telecast still earned the second lowest viewership numbers in the history of the Academy Awards.
Response to the actual ceremony was lackluster.
Many viewers took to social media to complain about how “boring” the host-less awards ceremony was.
Related: Oscars Controversy: Viewers Angered That John Lewis Introduced ‘Green Book’
Politics also predictably took center stage at several points during the show.
Director Spike Lee told people to “mobilize” against President Donald Trump for the 2020 presidential election, and actresses Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler joked about funding for the border wall mere minutes into the show.
There were some positive highlights, though. Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper (pictured above) gave a beautiful performance of the song “Shallow” from the film “A Star Is Born.”
Watch Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga perform "Shallow" from 'A Star Is Born' on the #Oscars: https://t.co/5yHjKpnMkz pic.twitter.com/RZad8wIsiy
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 25, 2019
Several Academy Award winners also avoided politics in their acceptance speeches and chose to highlight both God and family.
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