Oscars' TV audience dropped to 26.5 million — an all-time low

By Stephen Battaglio
Mar 05, 2018 | 12:45 PM
Oscars' TV audience dropped to 26.5 million — an all-time low

ABC's telecast of the 90th Oscars was watched by 26.5 million viewers on Sunday, the smallest TV audience on record for the ceremony.

The average audience for the broadcast was down 19.5% from last year's 32.9 million viewers and under the previous low of 32 million viewers in 2008, according to data from Nielsen.

ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was the emcee of Sunday's telecast, his second consecutive year in the role. Jon Stewart hosted in 2008.

The steep decline can be attributed to the challenge that all major television events face: the emergence of streaming online video. With so many programming options, even a major awards telecast that is perennially the most-watched entertainment program of the year is no longer an automatic default choice for viewers. The Grammy Awards and the Super Bowl both experienced ratings declines this year.

The Oscars' television audience also has been dropping in recent years as voting members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences have tended to celebrate smaller movies. The 2018 winner for best picture, "The Shape of Water," has earned $57.4 million at the box office in the United States and Canada, making it the highest-grossing honoree in the category since "Argo" in 2013.

Viewers may have also become weary of this year's awards-show speechifying about the #MeToo and Time's Up movements exposing and combating sexual harassment in the entertainment industry. In a particularly insider-y moment, lead actress winner Frances McDormand finished an otherwise emotional tribute to the other female nominees with the term "inclusion rider," referring to a contractual clause that requires a specific level of diversity in the cast and crew of a project.

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