The Tony Awards landed a 44 percent increase in viewership this year

Boston Globe

2 days ago

Hosted by Tony winner Cynthia Erivo, who currently stars in
That number represents an increase of 44 percent from the 3.53 million viewers who watched the Tony Awards on CBS last year, helped, no doubt, by the promised attendance of George Clooney and
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Sunday night's viewership was the largest broadcast audience for the Tonys since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic closed down Broadway and the rest of the theater world for a year-and-half, starting in March 2020.
During the worst of the pandemic, the long-term viability of live performance seemed like an open question.
The entertainment industry loves to slice, dice, and parse the numbers. So Broadway, locked in a perpetual quest for younger audiences, will doubtless take note that Sunday's Tony Awards achieved major gains in what are seen as key demographic categories, such as viewers ages 18-34, 18-49, and 25-54, according to Nielsen.
Sunday's ceremony, which was streamed on Paramount Plus, CBS's corporate sibling,
drew the largest streaming audience the Tonys have ever achieved, according to Paramount Plus.
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The Tony Awards have traditionally served as a way to elevate Broadway's profile in the eyes of a national TV audience, and provide a shot of adrenaline to the box office. But this time the Tonys simply put an exclamation point on what has been a robust year at the box office for Broadway.
During the 2024-25 season, Broadway grossed $1.89 billion, an increase of 23 percent and the largest amount on record. Of course, a goodly chunk of that increase can be attributed to stratospheric ticket prices.
Don Aucoin is the Globe's theater critic and a critic-at-large.
Don Aucoin can be reached at