{"id":663871,"date":"2026-03-18T07:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T07:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/663871\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T07:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T07:07:14","slug":"2026-oscars-telecast-scores-17-9-million-viewers-down-9-from-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/663871\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Oscars telecast scores 17.9 million viewers, down 9% from last year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ABC\u2019s Sunday telecast of the 98th Oscars averaged 17.9 million viewers, ending a four-year streak of audience increases.<\/p>\n

The figure from Nielsen is down 9% from the 19.7 million viewers who watched the telecast on ABC and Hulu in 2025.<\/p>\n

After ratings for the Oscars cratered to an all-time low of 10.5 million viewers in 2021, the event\u2019s audience levels ticked back up in recent years<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But the show has not topped 20 million viewers since 2019, as younger viewers are content to watch highlights of the ceremony on social media, rather than sit through a three-hour-plus telecast on traditional TV.<\/p>\n

The awards held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood honored \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d<\/a> for best picture, Michael B. Jordan<\/a> for lead actor in \u201cSinners,\u201d and Jessie Buckley<\/a> for lead actress in \u201cHamnet.\u201d Conan O\u2019Brien was the host for the second straight year.<\/p>\n

Critics said the ceremony was light on political statements about President Trump, whose name was not mentioned during the telecast. The show\u2019s highlight was an extended \u201cIn Memoriam\u201d <\/a>segment that gave extra tribute to legendary actor and filmmaker Robert Redford and slain actor, director and producer Rob Reiner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ABC had success in selling out the commercials for the Oscars, which is perennially the most watched non-sports telecast of the year. But the network will only have the event for two more years as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chose to take a better financial offer from YouTube for the rights <\/a>to the telecast starting in 2029.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien poked fun at the YouTube move. He closed with a video that shows him being appointed Oscars \u201chost for life.\u201d As he takes in the honor, poison gas seeps into the office he is given. After O\u2019Brien\u2019s lifeless body is wheeled out, a name plaque with a new host is put on the door. His successor is YouTube star Mr. Beast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ABC\u2019s Sunday telecast of the 98th Oscars averaged 17.9 million viewers, ending a four-year streak of audience increases.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":663872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[280877,8811,1582,276,47732,75192,2576,47066,10754,2961,13940,224,5337,15801,280878,5968,4370,280876,84665,3894],"class_list":["post-663871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-98th-oscar","tag-abc","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-ceremony","tag-conan-obrien","tag-event","tag-highlight","tag-host","tag-la","tag-last-year","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-oscars","tag-producer-rob-reiner","tag-score","tag-show","tag-telecast","tag-viewer","tag-youtube"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116248919882247094","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}