Oscars ratings in US dip to four-year low, defying expectations

Hopes had been high that the popularity of big hitters Sinners and One Battle After Another would translate into a bigger audience for the Oscars ceremony telecast. Yet numbers hit a four-year-low in the US, where the show reached 17.9 million viewers on ABC and Hulu, down about 9% from last year’s 19.7 million.Many had presumed the five-year high that 2025 represented was the product of interest in cinema bouncing back post-Covid – all the more cheering given that the movie that dominated, Sean Baker’s Anora, had not been a major box office player.That film took $20m in the US – a very healthy total for an arthouse release, but small change compared with Ryan Coogler’s Sinners’ $280m and Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle’s $72m.One Battle After Another has overperformed internationally, bringing its global total to $210m, while Sinners landed softer overseas with a worldwide total of $370m.Audience approval ratings for the Oscars show were also down, averaging 3.92 (out of five) among the 18-49 age group, compared with 4.54 last year – but up from 3.82 in 2024 (when Oppenheimer swept the board).Nonetheless, the show is now the US’s No 1 primetime entertainment telecast of the 2025-26 season, with rivals such as the Golden Globes getting 8.66 million viewers (down 6% year on year) and the Grammys also down 6% to 14.4 million.The show aired on ABC and Hulu and the broadcaster reported social impressions were up 42% to 184m, while Academy social platforms were also up.Rob Mills, the Disney executive in charge of the Oscars telecast, told Variety on Monday that he was so happy with Conan O’Brien’s second consecutive stint as host that the job was his next year, should he want it.This year’s US broadcast contained a number of audio glitches and attracted criticism for what many perceived as heavy-handed time-saving by cutting short acceptance speeches, in particular one made by Golden composer Yu-Han Lee.Speaking to Variety about the incident, Mills acknowledged the problem, saying: “I don’t know what the most elegant solution is, but it’s obviously something we should look really, really long and hard at.”The Oscars will continue to air on ABC and Hulu for two more years, before they move to YouTube in 2029, after their 100th edition in 2028. The channel will have the rights until at least 2033. O’Brien took apparent aim at the deal in a skit during the ceremony, in which his address was persistently interrupted by hectoring faux-ads fronted by the comedy actor Jane Lynch.