By David Bauder, Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Will Smith's violent slap of Chris Rock at the Academy Awards appeared to have a negligible impact on the show's television audience. But the world of social media is a much different story.
ABC said there were some 22.7 million social media interactions during Sunday's ceremony — the most ever for an Oscars telecast and more than double the 9.5 million recorded from last year's show.
What do you suppose everyone was tweeting or posting about?
The network says Oscar videos notched 16 million views on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, also a record for the show. ABC does not have any details about what video clips were most popular, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
The telecast as a whole drew 16.6 million viewers, up 58% from the 2021 show that was dramatically scaled back due to the pandemic, the Nielsen company said. Yet this year's show was down 30% from the more typical 2020 broadcast, which had been the second-smallest audience.
Nielsen measures viewership in 15-minute increments, and the 17.3 million viewers during the quarter-hour when Smith's attack took place was virtually identical to the quarter-hour that followed.
Then the audience dipped to 16.8 million before rising to 17.4 million during the period Smith won his best actor award, Nielsen said.
Led by its NCAA men's basketball tourney coverage, CBS won the week with an average of 6.2 million in primetime. Despite boasting the Oscars, ABC was second with 5 million. NBC had 2.28 million, Fox had 2.27 million, Univision had 1.5 million, Ion Television had 1.1 million and Telemundo had 960,000.
TBS, also boosted by the NCAAs, led the cable networks with an average of 2.81 million in prime time. Fox News Channel had 2.47 million, MSNBC had 1.12 million, HGTV had 1.11 million and CNN had 876,000.
ABC's "World News Tonight" led the evening news ratings race with an average of 8.3 million viewers last week. NBC's "Nightly News" averaged 6.8 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 4.9 million.
For the week of March 21-27, the 20 most-watched programs in primetime, their networks and viewerships:
1. "The Academy Awards," ABC, 16.62 million.
2. NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament: Arkansas vs. Duke, TBS, 10.34 million
3. NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament: St. Peter's vs. Purdue, CBS, 10.18 million.
4. NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament: North Carolina vs. UCLA, CBS, 8.82 million.
5. NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament: Texas Tech vs. Duke, CBS, 8.23 million.
6. NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament: Arkansas vs. Gonzaga, CBS, 8.16 million.
7. "NCAA Pregame" (Saturday), TBS, 8.04 million.
8. "FBI," CBS, 8.02 million.
9. "NCAA Pregame" (Thursday), CBS, 7.93 million.
10. "Live From the Red Carpet" (7:27 to 8 p.m.), ABC, 7.73 million.
11. "NCAA Pregame" (Friday), CBS, 7.3 million.
12. "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.29 million.
13. NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament: Houston vs. Villanova, TBS, 7.1 million.
14. "NCIS," CBS, 6.65 million.
15. "FBI: International," CBS, 6.11 million.
16. "FBI: Most Wanted," CBS, 5.79 million.
17. "The Neighborhood," CBS, 5.72 million.
18. "Live From the Red Carpet" (6:58 to 7:27 p.m.), ABC, 5.45 million.
19. "Bob Hearts Abishola," CBS, 5.39 million.
20. "Survivor," CBS, 5.35 million.
Kendrick Lamar will headline the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show
Kendrick Lamar will pop out on the NFL's biggest stage next year: The Grammy winner will headline the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show in New Orleans.
The NFL, Apple Music and Roc Nation announced Sunday that Lamar would lead the halftime festivities from the Caesars Superdome on Feb. 9. The rap megastar, who has won 17 Grammys, said he's looking forward to bringing hip-hop to the NFL's championship game, where he performed as a guest artist with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg in 2022.
"Rap music is still the most impactful genre to date," Lamar said in a statement. "And I'll be there to remind the world why. They got the right one."
Lamar has experienced massive success since his debut album "good kid, m.A.A.d city" in 2012. Since then, he's accumulated 17 Grammy wins and became the first non-classical, non-jazz musician to win a Pulitzer Prize for his 2017 album "DAMN."
The rapper's latest album "Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers," was released in 2022. He was featured on the song "Like That" with Future and Metro Boomin on a track that spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this year. He also garnered another hit with "Not Like Us."
Roc Nation founder Jay-Z called Lamar a "once-in-a-generation" artist and performer.
"His deep love for hip-hop and culture informs his artistic vision," Jay-Z said. "He has an unparalleled ability to define and influence culture globally. Kendrick's work transcends music, and his impact will be felt for years to come."
Roc Nation and Emmy-winning producer Jesse Collins will serve as co-executive producers of the halftime show. The creative direction of Lamar's performance will be provided by pgLang.
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