Oscars night drew a little less of a crowd this year—though it still ruled TV, per the Hollywood Reporter. Sunday night's 98th Academy Awards pulled in 17.86 million viewers across ABC and Hulu, down about 9% from 2025's post-pandemic high of 19.69 million and the show's weakest turnout since 2022. Among adults 18 to 49, ratings slid 14%. The drop, which the AP reports follows four consecutive years of gains, roughly tracks with this season's awards shows overall, though the Oscars' decline was steeper than the roughly 6% dips for the Golden Globes and Grammys. The largest-ever Oscars audience was 57.2 million in 1998, aka the year of Titanic. The lowest-ever came amid the pandemic, when just 10.4 million tuned in to the 2021 show.
Even so, the telecast remained the season's most-watched primetime entertainment program, and also scored a sizable win on social media: impressions jumped 42% to more than 181 million. Onstage, One Battle After Another led with six wins, including best picture and best director for Paul Thomas Anderson, while Sinners claimed four, among them best actor for Michael B. Jordan and best original screenplay for Ryan Coogler. Conan O'Brien hosted for the second time, navigating technical hiccups, some overlong bits, and widely praised speeches and performances—while sharing the night with an unusually strong rival: a World Baseball Classic semifinal that drew a record 7.37 million US viewers, the biggest-ever audience for a WBC game in the US. A Disney exec says O'Brien can host again next year if he wants to, Variety reports.
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