Did Jada’s campaign to boycott the Oscars affect this year’s show ratings?

The Academy Awards hit an eight-year low for ratings Sunday night, according to early results. The new low came after Smith, his wife and others decided to skip the ceremony to draw attention to systemic racism in the industry. According to early results in the country’s biggest 56 cities, the 88th Academy Awards scored a 23.4/36 MM rating, which means that during the 8:30pm-Midnight broadcast, about a quarter of households in those cities were watching the show and 36 per cent of all TVs were tuned to the ceremony.
That’s down six per cent from last year’s Oscars, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, and the lowest overnight ratings since Jon Stewart hosted in 2008, according to Variety. Final results will be out later this morning. The ratings tank may be due in part to the #OscarsSoWhite boycott, headed by Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith.
After the nominees for this year were announced, the Hollywood power couple said they would not be attending the ceremony to draw attention to systemic racism in the movie industry.

For the second year in a row, all of the acting nominees were white. Director Spike Lee also took part in the boycott, instead attending a Knicks basketball game in New York City Sunday night. This year’s awards ceremony was hosted by black comedian Chris Rock, who used his entire opening monologue to school the industry on the lack of opportunities black actors are given in Hollywood.