It’s fair to say that 2025 has got off to a difficult start in geopolitical terms both in the US and the world at large. However, even in these uncertain times, audiences are still finding some brief escape in the world of music and movies, with millions of Canadians tuning in to the various awards ceremonies.
Post-2020, there was a noticeable decrease in the viewership of these prestigious award shows. The ongoing debate regarding the lack of diversity among nominees and winners and the changes enforced due to the pandemic, such as remote and pre-recorded shows, had a significant impact on their popularity. Also, recent trends show that the movie awards ceremonies have been recognizing smaller, independent films over mainstream blockbusters. While this shift highlights artistic achievements, it may not be quite as appealing with a broader audience.
Despite this, the viewing of the 3 main events has been slowly rising. That is, until this year. With no Barbenheimer buzz and a backlash against the initial award front runner (Emilia Perez) it has been interesting to see how the shows have performed.
This year, Nikki Glasser became the first solo female host of the Golden Globes. It was widely acknowledged that her performance was instrumental in rejuvenating the ceremony, especially after the previous years' challenges. However, the conversation regarding the lack of diversity in some categories continued and overall, the average audience was down 13% when compared to last year.
In February, the Grammys hosted by Trevor Noah for the 5th year in a row could not maintain last year's peak and returned to 2023 viewing levels of around 1.5m viewers. With the rise of young artists such as Chappell Roan, Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Doechii and Sabrina Carpenter and a strong social media strategy, it is noticeable that the audience had a slightly younger profile this year.
We wrap up the award season with the Oscars in March. Conan O’Brien did an excellent job hosting the ceremony for the first time, and after a spellbinding opening from the Wicked Duo some felt that the telecast fell a little flat. However, even if the average audience was lower than last year, 7.2m Canadians still tuned in for at least a minute to catch some of the glitz and glamour.
Viewing highlights for Award shows in 2025
- The Academy Awards is still the most viewed of the three shows with over 7.2m Canadians aged 2+ watching at least a minute this year (however this preliminary reach figure is down 10% compared to final figures from last year).
- The “Wicked” factor at the Oscars may have influenced viewing for younger demos this year as the average audience for 2-11 year olds was 17% higher than last year.
- The Academy Awards show is most popular in the Toronto market where 27% of Ind2+ watched at least a minute compared to just 14% in Edmonton.
- Edmonton is the only market where viewing to all 3 events grew compared to last year for all Individuals aged 2+.
- The age profile of the Grammys became younger this year with 34% of the audience being under 35 (compared to 25% last year).
Produced using our API Conex, the full report is available to our TV PPM subscribers on the Lens platform.
Related blog: TV viewing trends in Canada
