Oscars 2025: Viewership dips by 7%; technical glitches, runtime blamed
What's the story
The 97th Academy Awards, which took place on Sunday night, drew 18.07 million viewers across ABC and Hulu, Disney reported.
The number is a drop from the last two years, down 7% from last year's four-year high of 19.5 million viewers.
The viewership was also a tad lower than the year prior, when the ceremony attracted 18.8 million viewers for the 95th annual Academy Awards in 2023.
Historical data
Oscars viewership: A look at the past trends
Before this year, the Oscars had witnessed a consistent rise in viewership. The 2021 ceremony, which was hostless, drew 10.4 million viewers.
In 2022, the controversial Will Smith-Chris Rock incident brought the audience to 16.6 million.
However, this year's drop is in line with recent patterns in other award shows like the Grammys (down by 9%) and Golden Globes (largely unchanged).
Challenges
Hulu's technical issues and Oscars's lengthy runtime
The drop in viewership could have also been affected by a number of technical glitches faced by Hulu users during the broadcast.
Some viewers were unable to log into their accounts at the beginning of the show, while others were booted off the broadcast before the last two categories were announced.
The ceremony's three hours and 47 minutes duration, one of its longest runtimes on record, could have also turned some viewers away.
Adjustments
Earlier start time and Emmy's viewership surge
Despite the challenges, the Academy tried to keep viewers by starting the show earlier at 7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT, keeping it mostly within primetime.
This tactic was also used last year to avoid the telecast going past 11:00pm ET, a frequent occurrence in the past.
Unlike other award shows, the Emmys witnessed a whopping 60% rise in viewership this year, despite being delayed by Hollywood strikes in 2023.
Ceremony recap
Highlights from the 97th Academy Awards
The 97th Academy Awards were dominated by Sean Baker's record-setting four wins for his movie Anora, which also bagged Best Picture. Baker won for Best Director, Editing, and Original Screenplay.
Mikey Madison won Lead Actress for the Neon film while Adrien Brody won Best Actor for A24's The Brutalist.
Zoe Saldana and Kieran Culkin took home the awards for Best Supporting Actress and Actor, respectively.