Host Conan O’Brien appears at the Academy Awards on Sunday, March 15, 2026, at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
98 the Oscars The Conan O’Brien-hosted show’s ratings plummeted after several years of winning. Walt Disney Co. said Tuesday that just under 17.9 million viewers tuned in to Sunday’s show, which aired live on ABC and was streamed on Hulu.Ratings are down 9% after last year’s post-pandemic 19.7 million viewers tuned in for O’Brien’s debut year as host, when “Anora” took home the awards. The show saw a more significant 14% decline in adults 18-49 viewers than last year. Sunday’s Oscars saw a battle between two Warner Bros. films, “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners,” which won best picture and best director. Michael B. Jordan won best actor for “Sinners,” the most nominated film in history with 16, and also broke the record for most nominations for a single film with 12. And yet, despite the drop in viewership, the Oscars are still the primetime entertainment show of the 2025-2026 season. The Golden Globes, which aired on CBS in January, drew 8.7 million viewers, down 7% from the previous year. Commitment to the Oscars rose by other measures, however. Primetime social impressions are up more than 42% this year. And there were more than 129 million video views on the Academy’s social networks during the night.The Oscars, like many other awards, hit an all-time low in 2021 with only 10.4 million viewers during the pandemic. In the 1990s it often attracted around 45 million viewers. Its peak came in 1998, when “Titanic” won best picture and was seen by 57.2 million people.Broadcast ratings won’t be the measure of success for the 2029 Oscars, when the show moves to YouTube for its 101st awards.
