The 90th Academy Awards were the least watched since the Academy’s award can be followed in a live television broadcast. According to data reported by American media on Tuesday, the viewership of the most prestigious film award fell by as much as 19 percent compared to last year, with only 26.5 million viewers tuning in. Last year, the Oscars attracted 32.9 million viewers, while the negative record had been held for years by the 2008 ceremony (31.8 million). It should be noted that these figures do not include viewership data from YouTube channels or streaming services.
Film experts attribute this decline to a number of factors, including the excessively long broadcast of the ceremony (almost four hours), predictable winners, as well as the general and unstoppable decline in television program viewership.
The TV network ABC, which currently holds the broadcasting rights to the Oscars, does not have excessive reason for concern as advertising sales results are expected to reach unprecedented heights. This year, advertising during the broadcast was charged 10 percent more than the previous year, which should bring ABC around 120 million dollars. For illustration, the mentioned television pays about 75 million annually for the rights to broadcast the ceremony live for the American Film Academy.
The explanation for this phenomenon is very simple – at a time when attracting a large number of viewers has become a difficult, almost impossible mission for TV networks, the Oscars are among the few remaining “zicera”, along with sporting spectacles like the Super Bowl or NBA finals.
According to reactions on social media, many were also bothered by the fact that the host of the award was comedian Jimmy Kimmel for the second consecutive year.
