Oscar Slap: Where Are Will Smith, Chris Rock During This Year's Academy Awards?

As a result of Will Smith's notorious slap on Chris Rock last year, ratings for the 2023 Academy Awards achieved a three-year high on Sunday, with viewership increasing by over two million people.

The program, which returned to Jimmy Kimmel as host after Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer, and Regina Hall presented the 2022 edition, received its greatest ratings around a month before the pandemic in 2020.

Oscars 2023 Show's Rating Increased

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nielsen said that the episode aired on ABC had an estimated 18.7 million viewers and a 4.0 rating among people aged 18-49. Compared to last year's performance, which drew 16.62 million viewers and a 3.76 rating in the 18-49 demographic, this statistic represents a 12.5% increase in overall viewers and a 5% increase in adults 18-49.

The audience for the program, which lasted more than three and a half hours, increased due to the formation of an event crisis team and rumors about how Jimmy Kimmel would handle random acts. According to the source, Sunday's Oscars were the most-watched entertainment program in primetime this year, topping Fox's Next Level Chef debut after the Super Bowl, which had 15.66 million viewers.

In recent years, ratings for most award presentations have declined due to pandemic-related limitations and rules, with the most recent Emmys and Golden Globes both experiencing a decline in viewers. There was an increase in viewership for the Grammy Awards last month, as per Daily Mail.

The film 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' showed strongly at Sunday's Oscars, winning Best Picture and acting awards for Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Ke Hui Quan. Brendan Fraser's career revival culminated when he received the award for Best Actor for The Whale.

Will Smith received a 10-year suspension from the Academy for attending the event due to the slap; hence neither Smith nor Rock attended Sunday's event. Chris Rock stated last year that he would not host this year's ceremony, and he just addressed Smith and the exchange in his new Netflix special, 'Selective Outrage.'

Where Is Will Smith, Chris Rock?

On Sunday, Will Smith maintained a quiet profile during the 95th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. Per ET Online, near the event in San Dimas, California, the 54-year-old actor was spotted driving a vehicle at 4 p.m. Pacific Time.

Jimmy Kimmel addressed the infamous occurrence in the show's opening monologue, despite the absence of Will Smith and Chris Rock from this year's Academy Awards. One year after he infamously slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards, Will Smith accompanied his family to meet life coach expert Jay Shetty in Los Angeles for the weekend Oscars.

The Oscar-winning actor stepped out with his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and posed with Shetty, Gammy Norris, and Lauren London at the Love Rules show. Smith's appearance comes after he was forced to give up the honor of presenting the best actor award to this year's winner due to his assault on Rock, 58.

At the 2023 event, Halle Berry presented the Oscars for Best Actor and Actress in place of the disgraced Will Smith. The incident occurred a year ago when Rock joked about Pinkett Smith's alopecia-related baldness.

On his new Netflix program, Selective Outrage, Rock recently attacked Will and Jada's relationship and addressed the slap. Meanwhile, Chris Rock is free to return, but it appears he opted to maintain his distance on the anniversary of the incident. Not only did he not attend the Oscars, but he also avoided the Dolby Theater and Los Angeles.

While Hollywood's brightest and most adored actors congregated on the red - or champagne - carpet, the comedian was spotted in Florida, as per Hello Magazine.

Still, he watched the performance, attending a watch party sponsored by fellow comedian Whitney Cummings at the Four Seasons Hotel in Surfside, Florida, in association with Vanity Fair and injectable company Xeomin, with whom Christina Aguilera has just teamed.

In a video sent to Twitter by one of the partygoers, Whitney stands at the bar, stunned, while Chris makes what appears to be an unexpected arrival.

"What the [expletive]?" before adding: "Chris Rock is in the [expletive] building!" Whitney shouted as he approached her, wearing a white crewneck sweater, sunglasses, and a baseball cap.

Although Chris Rock was not physically present at the awards ceremony, his presence was still felt due to host Jimmy Kimmel's frequent jokes about last year's debacle.

Tags

Chris rock, Will smith, Academy Awards