The Oscars dropped nearly 8% to 18 million viewers Sunday, the first year-to-year decline for the ABC telecast since 2021.
The decrease is hardly a shock, as the majority of this year’s Oscars contenders were not box office hits, including “Anora,” which won for best picture and four other trophies.
Last year, the average audience was 19.5 million viewers when two blockbusters that accounted for nearly $2.3 billion in combined box office receipts — “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” — were featured throughout the night.
“Anora,” director Sean Baker’s $6 million film about a sex worker’s impulsive, ill-fated romance with the son of a Russian oligarch, has taken in $16 million in domestic ticket sales. The 10 best pictures nominees collectively took in $1.6 billion.
Conan O’Brien, a former staple of late night network TV who is now a podcast mogul, was the first-time host of the ceremony.
The audience for the Oscars hit an all-time low of 10.5 million in 2021, when live awards shows were hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The telecast — which attracted nearly 30 million viewers as recently as 2019 — has seen its audience shrink as younger viewers eschew live three hour-plus telecasts for clips on social media. It still attracts enough viewers to be one of the highest rated non-sports programs of the year.
The 2022 show bounced back from the low ratings when Will Smith walked up on stage and struck presenter Chris Rock. That was the year Sundance hit “CODA” won best picture.
ABC was hoping for an audience boost this year by making the ceremony from the Dolby Theatre available on the Walt Disney Co.-owned streaming platform Hulu. In previous years, the Oscars could only be streamed on the ABC website that required a pay TV subscription.
The Hulu stream experienced technical problems for some viewers, cutting out before “Anora” star Mikey Madison collected her lead actress trophy and her film was named best picture. The stream stopped at 10:30 p.m. Eastern, the scheduled end time for the telecast, which continued for another 20 minutes.
Disney did not break out how many people watched the Oscars on Hulu.
The Oscars are notorious for running well over the three-and-a-half-hour time period ABC allots for the telecast. The program began at 7 p.m. Eastern for the second time this year to stem the loss of viewers that typically occurs after 11 p.m.
Disney apologized for the service interruption and is offering the full telecast for on-demand viewing.
The show opened with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande performing “Defying Gravity” from “Wicked,” the biggest commercial hit in contention. There was also a tribute to the first responders involved in the Los Angeles area fire rescue efforts, with two LAFD officers making showbiz gags onstage.
O’Brien was largely praised by critics for his stint as host.
