Oscar Ratings Hit All-Time Low as America Tunes Out
America’s love affair with Hollywood has hit a rough patch, as this year’s Oscar telecast has hit a historic new low in the ratings.
According to a report by The Wrap, Sunday’s Oscars on ABC saw a dramatic decline in viewers from the previous year. The annual celebration of the year’s best films lost six million viewers from last year, a drop of 20%. That made this year’s Oscars the lowest rated telecast ever.
Only 23.6 million people watched the Oscars on Sunday. In 2018, the Oscars only had 26.5 million viewers, which was an all-time low at the time.
By comparison, the 1998 Oscars hit an all-time high of over 57 million viewers.
The ratings are even worse when the demographics are considered. Advertisers want to see big numbers in the key demographic: adults between the ages of 18-49. Those adults tuned out at an even larger rate.
The 2020 Oscar ratings only pulled in a 5.3 rating in the 18-49 demo, a drop of 31% from the year before and an all-time low. The previous low was a 6.8 rating in 2018. By comparison, this year’s Grammys actually had a higher rating in the key demo (5.4).
There are many reasons for the drop in ratings. Perhaps the biggest key was the lack of popular movies with star power. Most people had not seen the Best Picture winner, Parasite. One of last year’s big hits, Joker, was the only box office smash to get any serious Oscar love this year.
The lack of a host for this year’s Oscars – for the second year in a row – didn’t help build any buzz the way Ricky Gervais did for the Golden Globes last month.
There’s also some backlash due to Hollywood’s political polarization, which tends to turn movie fans off, regardless of their beliefs. When the NFL went highly political in recent years, viewership and attendance at games dropped dramatically.
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