The 2021 Oscars ceremony was watched by the smallest audience the award show has received in its history.
The Academy Awards are the biggest night for Hollywood, but fewer and fewer people are tuning in to watch the event.
Viewership for last Sunday’s annual ceremony hit a new low, with 10.4 million people watching to find out which films, actors and technicians took home the big gongs, according to Nielsen data. That’s a nearly 56% drop from the 23.6 million viewers that turned on their TVs for the program last year.
The Academy’s third hostless show in a row scored a 2.12 rating among adults 18-49, a key demographic for advertisers, a 60% drop from 2020.
The news is not entirely surprising, as award shows, in general, have faced declining viewership in recent years.
The 2020 Emmys, which aired in September, likewise saw the lowest audience figures in its history. The show drew only 5.1 million total viewers, down 14% from last year’s event, according to Nielsen.
The Grammys, too, saw notable declines. This year’s award ceremony drew 9.23 million viewers, a 51% drop from the 18.69 million who tuned into the program in 2020.
