The 2026 Oscars saw a significant viewership decline.
After the live broadcast on Sunday, March 15, the awards show hit a four-year ratings low with 17.86 million viewers tuning in on ABC and Hulu. That is a nine percent drop from last year’s Oscars, which pulled in 19.69 million viewers.
Despite the decrease, the show still ranked as the top entertainment telecast of the 2025-26 TV season against the Grammys with 14.41 million total viewers and the Golden Globes, which brought in 8.66 million.
Hosted by Conan O’Brien, this year’s Oscars saw One Battle After Another win for Best Picture, Best Director for Paul Thomas Anderson and Best Adapted Screenplay. Sinners, meanwhile, came out on top with awards for Michael B. Jordan in the Best Actor category and Best Original Screenplay for Ryan Coogler.
Executives later weighed in on the show’s success — starting with plans to bring O’Brien, 62, back.
“Oh, that is no joke, Conan is host for life, yes,” Walt Disney Television’s Rob Mills, who is the executive vice president of unscripted and alternative entertainment, told Variety on Monday, March 16. “He hasn’t even accepted yet. He’s just being told. We’re assuming that was not a comedy bit. We’re going to treat that as if that was fact.”
Mills also addressed the backlash after the In Memoriam segment omitted some notable names.
“That’s the Academy’s call on who ends up on the telecast, but it is hard. I think it’s the hardest thing they possibly do,” he said. “It always is hard when they are sort of villainized for this. Yes, there’s always people who are left out.”
He continued: “Unfortunately, we’re losing more and more people, and especially, we’re losing legendary people every year, so it is probably the hardest needle to thread. I do think what they did last night might have been the best In Memoriam in the history of the Oscars.”
During the awards show, Rob Reiner, his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, Robert Redford and Diane Keaton were some film industry members who received lengthy tributes from their former costars. Catherine O’Hara was also mentioned in an emotional moment on stage as others who died in the past year were shown on screen at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, California.
There were some names, however, who weren’t mentioned despite their contribution to the industry, including Eric Dane, James Van Der Beek and more. Fans quickly took to social media to mention some of the omissions, which film critic Mara Reinstein defended.
“Friends I am a certified In Memoriam Oscars expert — I wrote a big story about it for [The Hollywood Reporter] last year —- and I’m telling you that James Van Der Beek and Eric Dane were never going to make the cut,” she wrote via X. “They’re too associated with TV and only limited # of actor slots allowed.”
ABC’s segment was subsequently expanded on The Academy’s website with Julian McMahon, James Ransone, Danielle Spencer, Loretta Swit, George Wendt, Demond Wilson and more being featured in that version.
