Early ratings from Nielsen and CBS reveal that the 2023 Tony Awards had the highest viewership since 2019. Approximately 4.31 million people tuned in to the unscripted show amid the ongoing WGA strike, marking the biggest audience since 2019 when 5.5 million viewers watched. This year’s ceremony also showed a 2 percent increase from 2022, which reported a viewership of 3.9 million.
In addition, the 2023 ceremony was the most live-streamed Tony Awards yet. The ceremony, which was broadcast live on CBS and available to stream on Paramount+, showed a 13 percent live-streaming average audience gain when compared to 2022.
The awards presentations began during the “Tony Awards: Act One” pre-show hosted by Julianne Hough and Skylar Astin, which was shown on Pluto TV. The pre-show is now the most-watched live event in the nearly 10-year history of Pluto TV.
Meanwhile, when compared to the other major award ceremonies that have taken place already in 2023, the Tonys recorded the smallest audience.
The 65th annual Grammy Awards, held in February, had 12.4 million viewers in the ceremony’s largest audience since 2020. That ceremony saw a 30 percent increase in viewership compared to the 2022 ceremony.
The 95th Academy Awards recorded an audience of 19.9 million, an increase of 8 percent from the 2022 ceremony, which saw 18.4 million viewers. That puts about 14.5 million viewers between the 2023 Oscars and the Tonys.
Still, to see increases across all three major 2023 ceremonies so far is encouraging, as is the bump in Tonys viewership.
