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Did African American Viewers Boycott the Oscars or Did They Watch It? The Numbers Are In

Mar 3, 2016  •  Post A Comment

With the Academy Awards ceremony seeing a drop in viewership this year, the question has been raised whether calls for a boycott over the Oscars’ lack of diversity had an impact on the numbers. But CBS News reports that the decline was smaller among black viewers than among overall viewership.

“The Nielsen company said Tuesday that an estimated 3.22 million black viewers watched the Oscars on ABC Sunday, a decline of 2 percent from the 2015 show,” the story reports. “The show’s overall viewership of 34.4 million was an eight-year low, and a drop of nearly 8 percent from the year before.”

The report adds: “Prior to the Chris Rock-hosted show, anger about a lack of minority nominees for the big awards led to the call for black viewers to tune out. It apparently wasn’t heeded, or viewers wanted to hear what Rock had to say about the issue — and it was the central theme of his monologue.”

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