Another Ratings Disaster for the Oscars

Movies

The final numbers for the Oscars are in, and they’re being celebrated, but they’re still not good. Originally, the Oscars telecast got 18.1 million viewers, but now that views from mobile devices and personal computers have been factored in, the number has risen exponentially… to 19.7 million viewers. Whoah, talk about a game-changer! Sunday’s Oscars have now done 1% better than last year’s telecast rather than 7% worse, which means the numbers for both ceremonies were so low that less than 2 million more viewers is an 8% shift. Naturally, entertainment media is celebrating this like they do when a Disney movie makes back its craft services budget because that’s their job. But the reality is that the Oscars are no longer the cultural phenomenon they once were; even adjusted to include people watching on their phones and computers, these ratings are still the third-lowest in Oscar history (or, at least, since 1974, the first time the Oscars ratings were recorded). The highest number came in 1998, when the Oscars were watched by 57.249 million people, and nobody was watching on their phones or PCs. Before 2018, the ratings never dipped below 32 million viewers; after 2020, they’ve never reached 20 million.

I think we all know what changed for the Oscars. You can point fingers at lots of stuff, as the media always does: they don’t nominate popular movies, the show is too long, kids today have no attention span, global warming. But the truth is that the Oscars changed, and a lot of people who enjoyed watching them every year were put off. I know this for a few reasons – one of which is that all of the things on that list were true in the ceremony’s heyday as well – but largely because I’m one of those people. I used to look forward to the Oscars; I even filled out my own ballot every year, not because I was betting but just to see how well I did. Which movies won didn’t really matter; it was more about celebrating another year in cinema, with a loving look back at Hollywood history as well. Bringing politics into the Oscars was frowned upon, and everyone understood that it was neither the time nor the place to air political grievances. Marlon Brando once had a Native American woman accept an Oscar for him and give a speech about race relations, and everyone made fun of him and thought he was a weirdo. I remember Michael Moore winning for Bowling for Columbine and getting booed when he made an anti-Bush speech – booed by a roomful of elite Hollywood lefties who had a sense of decorum.

That all changed when Donald Trump won the Presidency for the first time in 2016. I know because I turned off the 2017 show and never watched it again. The Hollywood people were so enraged over not getting their way that they turned everything they got their hands on, including the Oscars, into an angry political screed, and they turned off normal people. It’s been that way ever since, or so I’m told because I don’t watch anymore, and despite some saying that this year was quiet on that front, there were instances of political force-feeding. Host Conan O’Brien, though by all accounts more restrained than Jimmy Kimmel (who appears to have been lobotomized since his Man Show days with the still awesome Adam Carolla), couldn’t resist taking a few shots at President Trump. The winners of the Best Documentary award gave a speech about “ethnic cleansing,” and while I get that the movie they made was about that, after almost a decade of lecturing at the Oscars, people roll their eyes at this – and, more importantly to the Academy and ABC, they know it’s coming and don’t watch as a result. Daryl Hannah also got political by saying “Slava Ukraine” before presenting the Best Editing award, because real-world politics are what you want thrown at you while a badass fight scene from Kill Bill is playing on the stage.

“Slava Ukraini” – Daryl Hannah shows support for Ukraine at the 2025 #Oscars pic.twitter.com/p811M79d2Z

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) March 3, 2025

Why do they do it? The simple answer is that they just can’t help themselves. I and many others have talked about this a lot over the past several years, but famous people have been unable to restrain themselves from shouting their every sociopolitical stance from any platform they’ve had since the advent of social media, or at least its rise to prominence in the national discourse. Now, they must do it everywhere, at all times, even when they know people are tired of it. It’s a smug middle finger to the populace they clearly hate, especially now that they’ve been defied so overwhelmingly. (Do you think “God bless America” would get the applause “Slava Ukraine” did?) And that’s fine; if they want to ensure the Oscars remain a joke, it’s no skin off my nose. As much as I miss it, I enjoy my new practice of watching a classic movie I’ve never seen instead of the Oscars (but not this year because I was binge-watching Daredevil before Born Again). But the way things are going, Hollywood is going to have to choose between retaining – or winning back – its audience and pissing and moaning about politics soon because they’ve become too insufferable even for movie stars.

Let us know what you thought of this year’s Oscars (on the off chance you watched them; if not, feel free to point and laugh) in the comments!

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