Tony AwardsTony Awards Ratings: Numbers Up for 76th Annual Ceremony on CBS
The Pluto TV livestream, which aired prior to the CBS telecast, also broke records for the free platform.
By
Andrew Gans
June 12, 2023
The 76th Annual Tony Awards—broadcast June 11 on CBS and on demand on Paramount+—were seen by 4.3 million viewers, up 10 percent in viewership from the previous year.
The two-part Tony ceremony, celebrating the 2022-2023 Broadway season, kicked off at 7 PM with TheTonyAwards:ActOne, hosted by Skylar Astin and Julianne Hough on Pluto TV. The 76th Annual Tony Awards— again hosted by Oscar winner Ariana DeBose—followed at 8 PM ET on CBS. Due to the ongoing Writers Guild of America Strike, the ceremony, held for the first time at the United Palace in Washington Heights, was completely unscripted.
Variety also reports that the 2023 Tony Awards had a 13 percent increase in streaming viewers, making it the most live-streamed ceremony to date. The Act One portion also broke records for Pluto TV, becoming the most-watched live event in the history of the platform, which debuted in 2013.
By comparison, the 75th annual ceremony—broadcast June 12, 2022, also on CBS after a Paramount+ event—was seen by only 3.9 million viewers. The 74th Annual Tony ceremony was viewed by 2.77 million viewers with a 0.4 rating among adults in the 18-49 demographic. The pre-pandemic 73rd Annual Tony Awards telecast in 2019 drew 5.5 million viewers with a 0.8 rating.
The Fred Ebb Award recognizes excellence in musical theatre songwriting, by a songwriter or songwriting team that has not yet achieved significant commercial success.