Despite months of relentless promotion and mushrooming buzz around boycotts and protests, the 88th Academy Awards Oscars ratings plummeted to an 8-year low.
While Oscars host Chris Rock successfully combined searing comedy and social commentary as he exposed Tinsel Town’s persistent and well-documented problem with race, this year’s show was down 6 percent in total viewership from last year.
“Declining to an 8-year low, that’s down 6% from the 24.6/39 that the ceremony got last year in early results from the 56 markets across the country,” wrote Deadline’s Dominic Patten. “Last year’s Oscars ended up with 37.3 million total viewers and an 11.0/26 rating in the key demo. That was the lowest performance among adults 18-49 since 2008 and the lowest viewership since 2009.”
With an abysmal showing so far, the final tally for this year’s Oscars remains to be seen.
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