Oscars Saw No Ratings Boost After Will Smith, Chris Rock Altercation

Despite lighting social media ablaze, the altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock at the 94th Academy Awards did not appear to bring in a significant increase in viewership.

Nielsen reports that the 2022 Oscars received an average of 16.6 million viewers, the second lowest-viewed ceremony in its history. The only noticeable increase in viewership throughout the Sunday broadcast was during the 11 p.m. and 11:14 p.m. slot, the approximate time that Smith won the Academy Award for Best Actor. During that frame, the number of viewers increased to 17.4 million.

This increase is considered to be less than what was expected after what had played out live on air during the ceremony. Before the presentation of Best Documentary Feature, Smith went on stage to slap comedian and presenter Chris Rock after he made a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith. Rock joked that he couldn't wait to see Pinkett-Smith in GI Jane 2, insinuating she would be starring in it because of her buzzed haircut, but Pinkett-Smith has been diagnosed with alopecia, or hair loss, so the joke fell flat.

Even as a high-profile incident, that was not the biggest increase seen during the awards ceremony. That honor came hours before the infamous slap during Coda actor Troy Kotsur's win for Best Supporting Actor, which fell into the 9:15 p.m. to 9:29 p.m. slot. That part of the broadcast, a historic moment that saw Kotsur become the first deaf man and second deaf person beside costar Marlee Matlin to ever win an Oscar, averaged 17.7 million viewers.

When it comes to social media metrics, however, the Smith and Rock altercation quickly became one of the most talked-about Oscars moments ever online. Although exact slot metrics are not currently known, Deadline reports that the 2022 ceremony saw a 139 percent increase in social media traffic and activity over the 2021 ceremony.

The uncensored clip that aired on Japanese television has now been viewed over 57.8 million times.

Two days later, the Internet is still talking about the incident. According to GetDayTrends, a website that monitors trending keywords and hashtags on Twitter, #WillAndChris was the fourth most tweeted hashtag over the past 24 hours, with around 93,700 tweets being made with the hashtag in total. #WillSmithAssault is listed as the 14th most tweeted hashtag over the same period of time, although it saw significantly fewer tweets at around 28,100.

Smith has also now publicly apologized to Rock for the incident, calling violence "poisonous and destructive," no matter the form or justification.

"I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris," Smith wrote on Instagram. "I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness."

The Academy convened for an emergency meeting on Monday, but no disciplinary action has been taken against Smith as of yet.

Update at 3/29/22, 2:58 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information.