Ratings: Tony Awards Draw Best Audience Since 2019, Live Stream Hits High

Now this is something to sing about.

CBS' Sunday-night airing of the 76th Tony Awards averaged 4.31 million viewers, based on Nielsen fast national data and estimated out-of-home viewership — a 2% increase from the tallies for last year's telecast.

As such, this year's unscripted ceremony, winningly hosted by Academy Award, Golden Globe and SAG Award winner Ariana DeBose, stands as the most-watched Tonys of the post-pandemic era, since June 2019. (That year's telecast drew 5.4 million viewers.)

Relatedly — though no actual numbers were divulged — CBS reports that the average live streaming audience on Paramount+ enjoyed +13% year-to-year gains, making it the most live-streamed Tonys to date. Similarly, The Tony Awards: Act One, a live pre-show that streamed on Pluto TV from 6:30–8 pm ET, reportedly stands as the most-watched live event in Pluto TV's nearly decade-long history.

At this year's Tony Awards, Kimberly Akimbo claimed prizes five times, including for Best Musical, lead actress Victoria Clark and featured actress Bonnie Milligan. As far as plays go, Leopoldstadt amassed four total wins, including for Best New Play, featured actor Brandon Uranowitz and director Patrick Marber.

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The Live+Same Day numbers reported in our ratings column do not reflect a show's overall performance, given the increased use of delayed playback via DVR and streaming platforms, plus out-of-home viewing. These numbers (Nielsen fast nationals, unless denoted as finals) instead aim to simply illustrate trends or superlatives. Steve Harvey is not a judge or lawyer and merely offers an alternative forum of dispute resolution.