2025 Oscar Ratings Dip to 18.1 Million Viewers

Oscar voters may have loved Anora, but viewers at home still need to get to know her. Preliminary ratings for the 97th Oscars are in, and this year’s independent film-dominated show saw a 7% dip from 2024’s Barbenheimer barnburner.

Per early Nielsen fast national ratings, the telecast brought in an average of 18.1 million total viewers versus the 19.5 million who tuned in last year to watch Christopher Nolan’s nearly billion-dollar grossing Oppenheimer sweep the major awards. It also ranks below the 2023 ceremony, when 18.8 million viewers tuned in to watch Everything Everywhere All at Once claim the Best Picture prize.

But this year’s Oscars did finish above the other awards shows that have aired in 2025 thus far. The Golden Globes averaged 9.3 million viewers in January, while the Grammys drew 15.4 million viewers last month.

This was also the first year that the Oscars were livestreamed on Hulu, and those streaming numbers were included in the night-of ratings. With apologies to Elphaba, though, the show’s Hulu debut was accompanied by a wicked glitch. There were multiple reports of streaming issues throughout the show, with some viewers unable to watch grand finale where Anora star Mikey Madison scored a Best Actress victory over presumptive favorite Demi Moore and the film itself took home Best Picture.

“Yesterday evening, we experienced technical and live stream issues on Hulu which impacted some Oscars viewers,” a Disney spokesperson told ADWEEK. “We apologize for the experience and will make a full replay of the event available as soon as possible.”

In an exclusive interview ahead of the Oscars, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer expressed hopes that the addition of a Hulu livestream would help this year’s Oscars defy recent awards-show ratings gravity.

“We have to think about the metric for success differently as our viewing habits change,” he noted, citing plans to include night-of linear and digital ratings as well as a seven-day ratings number and social media engagement. “The days of just saying how many people watched a show on linear TV night-of has evolved—and that’s good.”

Rates and ratings

On the advertising front, the Hulu issues didn’t cause headaches for brands. A source familiar with the matter told ADWEEK that the night was free of advertisers disruptions as the Hulu stream was a “pass-through” of the ABC ad breaks.

That’s good news for advertisers like Prudential, Poise, and SkinnyPop, which paid between $1.7 and $2.3 million for a 30-second spot—a slight increase from last year’s show.

Equaling or surpassing last year’s show was always going to be a challenge based on the titles in the running for Best Picture. Of the 10 nominees, only Dune: Part Two and Wicked were close to matching Barbie and Oppenheimer in terms of box office. Made for $6 million, Anora grossed a little over $15 million domestically during its theatrical run, a number matched by its closest competitor, The Brutalist.

Meanwhile, the night’s most-nominated film—Netflix’s Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez—has no reported box office gross since the streamer keeps theatrical runs limited. The drama surrounding that movie, as well as the twists and turns of some of the other too-close-to-call races, seemed poised to drive viewer engagement and excitement in the days leading up to the Oscars.

This year’s results may add fuel to the argument from some quarters that the show’s ratings would benefit from more populist Best Picture picks.

98 and counting

Looking ahead, some populist names are expected to be back in the mix for the 98th Oscars in 2026. This fall’s awards movie cycle brings the first collaboration between Paul Thomas Anderson and Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash, and Wicked: For Good, the second half of Jon M. Chu’s much-nominated musical blockbuster.

Cynthia Erivo and Araina Grande whet our collective appetite for a return to Oz with a show-opening medley of songs from The Wizard of Oz and Wicked on Sunday night. Additional musical moments were provided by the trio of Lisa, Raye, and Doja Cat, who joined forces for a James Bond tribute, and Queen Latifah took center stage for a salute to the dearly-departed Quincy Jones.

That’s the kind of off-the-charts Kenergy that the Oscars can hopefully carry into next year’s show.