Oscars 2026 attracted 17.9 million viewers, saw historic wins and signaled major shifts in how the show will be delivered
The 98th Academy Awards registered an audience of 17.9 million viewers across broadcast and Hulu, according to a report from ABC on Monday, March 16. That number represents roughly a 9 percent decline from last year’s 19.69 million and is the lowest total since the ceremony that drew 16.6 million viewers. The show was hosted for a second consecutive year by Conan O’Brien, who paced an energetic evening that ran just over three hours and had the unusual scheduling wrinkle of starting later than typical because of the Olympics.
Those raw figures arrived amid mixed signals about audience engagement. The telecast remained the No. 1 primetime entertainment broadcast outside of sports, and social media chatter rose significantly. At the same time, other awards telecasts, including the Golden Globes and the Grammys, also experienced declines of about 6 percent. Taken together, the numbers point to a changing attention landscape even as the ceremony retained cultural prominence.
Network and platform distribution played a key role in how the night was measured. For the second year in a row the show was available live on both ABC and Hulu, a dual-distribution strategy intended to capture viewers who now split their time between linear and streaming. Despite that, total audience size did not rebound to the recent peak seen last year and remains well below the averages from earlier in the decade, such as the 23.6 million that the 2026 broadcast drew at the time. Meanwhile, organizers touted a roughly 42 percent increase in social impressions, underscoring the split between traditional ratings and online engagement.
The ceremony’s home is also shifting in the near future. ABC will continue to maximize the telecast until the end of its current run, but beginning in 2029 the broadcast rights move to YouTube for the period through 2033. The transition prompted on-stage jokes from Conan O’Brien, who lampooned the prospect of the show streaming with pop-up ad bits, and closed the night with a playful gag replacing an “Oscar host for life” placard with one bearing the name of a famous YouTube personality. The broader message: the industry is recalibrating where audiences live, and platforms with huge daily reach are reshaping distribution strategies.
The biggest awards of the night were split between two Warner Bros. releases. One Battle After Another took home Best Picture and ended the evening with six Oscars in total, while Sinners earned four wins and had arrived as the most-nominated film with a record 16 nods. Notable individual victories included a long-awaited Oscar for filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, a best original Screenplay trophy for Ryan Coogler, and a Best Actor win for Michael B. Jordan for his role in Sinners. The ceremony also marked a historical first when a woman won the Oscar for Best Cinematography in the Academy’s 98-year history.
Musical moments were built around two nominated songs. The mega-hit “Golden” from the streaming sensation KPop demon hunters was performed live and later won Best Original Song, while a powerful rendition of “I Lied to You” from Sinners amplified that film’s presence on stage. The telecast also featured a solemn in memoriam segment honoring industry figures, with tributes expected for names like Robert Redford, Diane Keaton and Robert Duvall among others.
Beyond trophies and ratings, the night reflected institutional updates and a tense external environment. The Academy introduced a new category for best casting and implemented a requirement that voting members confirm they have watched all nominees before casting ballots via the academy’s streaming platform, an effort to make the process more deliberate. Security at the Dolby Theatre was notably heightened, with organizers citing ongoing global events and close collaboration with federal and local law enforcement; some attendees wore pins reading “Artists for cease fire” to signal political concerns affecting the gathering.
For studios and broadcasters the results carry immediate implications. Warner Bros. enjoyed a rare sweep of critical and awards momentum with two major titles shot on film and released theatrically, while streaming-first blockbusters continued to dominate global viewing metrics outside awards season. As rights shift toward digital-first outlets like YouTube in coming years, the Academy and its broadcast partners will be testing how to preserve the ceremony’s prestige while adapting to where audiences increasingly watch.