Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Oscars Ratings As Bad as Feared, Fall to 10 Million from 26 Mil Last Year, Lowest Ever But to Be Expected

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We knew this was going to be bad. Last night’s Oscars were always going to be a ratings bust.

Last year’s Oscars hit an all time low of 23.6 million. That was after hitting a high of 43.7 million in 2014. But after that it was all downhill.

Last night’s early numbers indicate 10 million people watched the show, which is just about right. The movies featured didn’t have big audiences, the pandemic was a setback. The 2021 Oscars are an aberration. Next year, things will be up.

No one wanted to give the Oscars producers any slack even with the pandemic. And no one takes into account that this was the only awards show that actually came off live, with people in the same place. I think Steven Soderbergh, Jesse Collins, and Stacey Sher deserve a lot of credit for making it happen at all.

But these numbers will have the snarkers calling for changes again.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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