The 97th Oscars ceremony was watched by 19.69 million viewers across both ABC and digital platforms, inching just past the 19.5 million that watched last year’s ceremony in 2024. It’s the highest it’s been in five years since 2020, but it still has a long way to go to match pre-pandemic numbers, as the February 9, 2020, Academy Awards, averaging 23.6 million viewers, was at the time a historic low for the awards ceremony.
According to Disney and ABC, the total includes 1.645 million viewers who watched it through mobile, PC, or tablet to help boost the number to 19.69 million. The show also had its best rating for adults 18-49 in a five-year span, hitting a 4.54 rating, which was up 19 percent from 2024. It also performed 28 percent better with 18-34-year-olds than the 2024 telecast.
While last year’s Oscars had the box office juggernaut of “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” to help boost it, the addition of Conan O’Brien as host likely drove up younger viewers this year, which helped considering that Best Picture winner “Anora” is one of the lowest-grossing movies to win Best Picture this century. Still, box office hits “Wicked” and “Dune” were both nominated, and the show opened with a previously hyped performance from “Wicked” stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.
The show, for the first time, was available for a livestream via Hulu, though the broadcast had some major technical issues and cut out early for many viewers, prior to the announcement of both Best Actress and Best Picture. While the show ran long this year, IndieWire’s review greatly enjoyed this year’s sincere and silly show as hosted by O’Brien in his first (and hopefully not final) stint. “Anora” won five of the six Oscars it was nominated for in a historic night for the film and director Sean Baker. He became the first individual to win four Oscars in a single night for one film.
“Titanic’s” win in 1998 still holds the record for the most-watched Oscars ever, with an average of 55.2 million viewers. The all-time low was in the COVID year of 2021, with just 10.5 million total viewers.
