Critics Choice Awards Broadcast Musters 14% Uptick In Viewership On The CW

The Critics Choice Awards bounced back a bit this year on The CW.

After posting a record low last year, the ceremony managed just over a million viewers on Sunday, up 14% over last year, according to Nielsen data. The audience peaked toward the end of the show with 1.14M viewers.

The CW is touting this as the ceremony’s largest audience on the network in four years, though the Critics Choice Awards were simulcast across The CW and TBS in 2022. That ceremony took home 1.1M viewers. So technically, yes, The CW’s portion of viewers has gone up but that’s because it hosts the show alone now. Viewership is still down from 2020, when the show put up around 1.3M viewers.

The Critics Choice Awards has managed to recuperate from the historic lows it reached during the pandemic, though. The virtual 2021 edition of Critics Choice Awards drew just 365,000 total viewers.

According to Nielsen, this year’s ceremony was up 50% versus 2023 in adults 18-49, with 202,000 viewers tuning in from that demo. In the 25-54 demo, it was up 37% with 239,000 viewers.

Much like the Emmys on Monday, the Critics Choice Awards also had to compete directly with an NFL Wild Card matchup. The Chiefs-Dolphins game, which was one of the coldest NFL games on record, posted record viewership for Peacock, where it streamed exclusively.

It indeed was the Barbenheimer Show at the CCAs, as Oppenheimer led with eight Critics Choice Awards and summer rival Barbie finishing second with six wins including Best Comedy. See the full list of winners here.