Ratings Watch: The Oscars Gains with Time-Shifted Audiences, While ‘The Walking Dead’ Holds Firm

Michael Schneider March 6, 2016, 3:39 pm

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Add a million more viewers to the 2016 Oscars tally.

That’s how many more people chose to watch this year’s Academy Awards in the three days after its initial telecast. This year’s Oscars now stands at 35.5 million viewers (up from 34.5 million who watched it live or on the same night, which made it the least-watched Oscars in eight years).

That’s still down from last year’s Academy Awards, which averaged 38.4 million viewers (including 1.1 million that watched it time-delayed within the following three days). The Oscars remains the most-watched entertainment telecast since last year’s ceremony.

Meanwhile, thanks to time shifting, AMC’s The Walking Dead held its own against the Oscars, averaging 17.8 million viewers (down from the previous week’s 18.4 million).

Meanwhile, the finale of Fox’s The X-Files reboot averaged a healthy 10.1 million viewers and a strong 3.3 rating among adults 18-49, making another installment a no-brainer for the network (if it can seal new deals with the show’s stars). And a special episode of ABC’s Black-ish, which tackled police brutality, hit the top 10 with adults 18-49.

Here are the top 25 shows (including Live+3 DVR and VOD data) among total viewers and adults 18-49 for the week of February 22 through 28, 2016.

Total viewers chart:

RANK	SHOW & NETWORK	LIVE+3 DAYS DVR/VOD	WATCHED LIVE/ SAME DAY
1	88th Academy Awards ABC	35.5	34.5
2	NCIS CBS The Big Bang Theory CBS	20.1 20.1	17.5 15.9
4	The Walking Dead AMC	17.8	12.8
5	Live from the Red Carpet (Oscars) ABC	16.7	16.5
6	NCIS: New Orleans CBS	14.8	12.6
7	Blue Bloods CBS	13.8	10.3
8	Texas Republican Presidential Debate CNN	13.5	13.1
9	Scorpion CBS	12.6	9.9
10	NCIS: Los Angeles CBS Criminal Minds CBS	11.5 11.5	8.8 8.7
12	Modern Family ABC Hawaii Five-O CBS	10.9 10.9	8.1 8.3
14	Chicago Fire NBC	10.7	7.8
15	Life in Pieces CBS	10.6	9.2
16	American Idol (Thursday) Fox	10.5	8.7
17	American Idol (Wednesday) Fox	10.2	8.9
18	The X-Files Fox	10.1	7.6
19	The Bachelor ABC Survivor CBS Chicago P.D. NBC	10.0 10.0 10.0	8.7 8.4 7.0
22	Grey’s Anatomy ABC	9.9	7.2
23	The Blacklist NBC	9.8	6.0
24	Code Black CBS Mom CBS	9.4 9.4	6.9 7.9

Total viewers; in millions

Adults 18-49 chart:

RANK	SHOW & NETWORK	LIVE+3 DAYS DVR/VOD RATING	WATCHED LIVE/ SAME DAY RATING
1	88th Academy Awards ABC	10.8	10.5
2	The Walking Dead AMC	8.7	6.1
3	The Big Bang Theory CBS	5.4	3.8
4	Live from the Red Carpet (Oscars) ABC	4.2	4.2
5	Modern Family ABC	3.7	2.5
6	The X-Files Fox	3.3	2.4
7	Grey’s Anatomy ABC	3.2	2.1
8	The Bachelor ABC	3.1	2.5
9	NCIS CBS	3.0	2.4
10	Black-ish ABC Talking Dead AMC Texas Republican Presidential Debate CNN	2.8 2.8 2.8	1.9 2.2 2.7
13	Scandal ABC How to Get Away with Murder ABC Criminal Minds CBS People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story FX	2.7 2.7 2.7 2.7	1.7 1.7 1.8 1.3
17	American Idol (Thursday) Fox The Goldbergs ABC Life in Pieces CBS	2.6 2.6 2.6	2.1 1.9 2.1
20	American Idol (Wednesday) Fox Survivor CBS Chicago P.D. NBC Chicago Fire NBC	2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5	2.1 1.9 1.6 1.6
24	Lucifer Fox Scorpion CBS	2.4 2.4	1.5 1.7