Ratings were down for The Tony Awards again this year, with preliminary Nielsen data for the June 16 broadcast coming in at 3.5 million viewers, a decrease of 14.6% from last year's telecast.
While organizers will certainly be disappointed to see yet another drop in viewers, it's worth mentioning that this year's numbers are not the lowest the Tonys have ever seen, an unfortunate distinction still held by the 2021 awards. That ceremony, affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, was watched by less than 3 million. Compare that to a recent high in excess of 8 million viewers in 2016, the year of Hamilton's near sweep. The numbers also unfortunately keep the Tonys as the least watched of the major awards shows, despite a particularly underperforming Emmy Awards this year.
It is worth mentioning that Nielsen's data is solely based on the CBS terrestrial broadcast. The ceremony also streamed live on Paramount+ to subscribers with the Showtime add-on, but Nielsen does not include those figures in its on-air ratings. CBS is currently contracted to air the Tonys through 2026.
This year's ceremony coinciding with Father's Day may have hurt numbers. The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that overall TV use was down by 10% compared to the night of the 2023 Tony Awards, which did not fall on a holiday. In fact, it was the lowest TV use for a Sunday night since 1987.
Beyond honoring the artistry happening on and offstage on Broadway, The Tony Awards exist primarily to serve as a nationwide marketing tool. A Best Musical win can sell a great number of tickets, but so can performances during the broadcast irrespective of how award wins shake out. To that end, the usefulness of the Tonys extends beyond the live broadcast itself. Being nominated is used as a mechanism to get appearances on almost all major morning and late-night shows, and even those who did not watch the ceremony itself are likely to have seen highlights on news broadcasts that night and the morning after.
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West Side Story Oscar winner Ariana DeBose was back to host this year's ceremony for the third consecutive year, with The Tony Awards: Act One hosted by Julianne Hough and Utkarsh Ambudkar. Stereophonic emerged as the big winner of the night, with Best Play being among its five total wins. The Outsiders took Best Musical, with Best Revival of a Play going to Appropriate and Best Revival of a Musical going to Merrily We Roll Along. See the full list of winners here.
For more Tony Awards coverage, visit Playbill.com/Tonys.
