The 2020 Oscars Hit an All-Time Low in Viewership

While it may seem as if the whole world was abuzz when Parasite took home Best Original Screenplay, Best Foreign-Language Film, Best Director for Bong Joon Ho and the coveted Best Picture award, it seems that there just wasn’t enough incentive for people to watch the ceremony.

The 92nd Academy Awards hit a record low number in viewership last night, with 23.6 million tuning in, according to Nielsen (via the AP). This is about 6 million less people than last year’s equally host-less ceremony, which drew in 11% more viewers than the ceremony did in 2018.

The lack of viewership is interesting, especially considering the stan culture surrounding many of the films (it couldn’t have just been the #BongHive showing up, right?), as well as performances from hot artists like Billie Eilish and Janelle Monáe.

It seemed like this year’s Oscars really meant something, too—Taika Waititi became the first Maori person to win an Oscar, there were endless shout-outs about a push for gender and racial parity in Hollywood, and Hildur Guðnadóttir became the first woman in 23 years to win Best Original Score—but this ceremony had less than half of the viewership of the 1998 Oscars ceremony, when 55.2 million watched Titanic take home Best Picture.

Revisit Paste’s coverage of the 92nd Academy Awards here.