Social media — All about entertainment.

U.S. Citizens Continue to Show Interest in Award Shows, According to a Fresh AP-NORC Survey

A considerable number of U.S. adults express gratitude towards the academy by watching a significant portion of their award ceremonies, with approximately half having watched all or the majority.

, and ASMedia

2025 September 20 . 2:10 AM

2 min read

Award ceremonies continue to garner attention from Americans, according to a recent AP-NORC survey

U.S. Citizens Continue to Show Interest in Award Shows, According to a Fresh AP-NORC Survey

A new poll conducted by CBS suggests that awards shows, such as the Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, Tonys, and Golden Globes, still hold some appeal for U.S. adults. According to the AP-NORC poll, about half of U.S. adults have watched all or most of an awards show on TV or streaming in the past year.

The Oscars, in particular, are coming off a five-year high in viewers. Nearly 20 million people watched 'Anora' win best picture and four other top trophies in March. The Emmys audience, however, is less than half that of the Oscars.

Interestingly, people under the age of 45 are more likely to have watched both an awards show and clips in the past year compared to people age 45 or older. The survey found that people who watched full awards shows largely overlap with clip viewers, although people are slightly more likely to say they’ve just watched clips rather than just watching shows. About 4 in 10 say they haven’t watched clips or shows at all.

The long-term ratings decline of awards shows closely tracks with real-time broadcast and cable television viewing across the board for virtually everything in the U.S. but football. However, meme-able moments like the 'La-La Land' fiasco or Will Smith’s slap at the Oscars or the hits and misses of Golden Globes monologues have shown that awards shows can still have life after social media took over for TV for many.

The biggest awards shows have streaming partners, but they generally don’t appear there until the following day. The BET Awards and Latin Grammys have reached more targeted audiences, similar to how the MTV Video Music Awards brought young viewers into the awards audience starting in the mid-1980s.

Awards shows are more popular among Black and Hispanic adults compared to white adults, with 7 in 10 of the former groups watching clips or full shows in the past year, contrasting with just over half of white adults. The Oscars have seen a short-term uptick in viewers after cultural shifts.

Inez Parker, 88, is an example of an adult who watches awards shows on live TV and expects to tune into the Emmys this weekend. However, she doesn’t stream the show again or watch clips after the fact, as she’s too busy. Rose Lucas, 77, used to watch the BET Awards for the R&B and hip-hop performances but no longer watches them live, preferring short clips of performances the next day.

The results of the poll suggest that the Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, Tonys, and Golden Globes still have some vitality. The AP-NORC poll of 1,182 adults was conducted Aug. 21-25, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.