The 2018 Academy Awards telecast on ABC attracted 26.5 million viewers across the nearly four-hour show on Sunday night.
It is therefore the least-watched Oscar show to date.
The drop off was not entirely unexpected, as the audiences for most award shows have seen declines in recent years.
But the 2018 Oscars are down approximately 19% compared to 2017.
The 8 p.m.-11 p.m. portion of ABC’s telecast averaged an 18.9 household rating and 32 share in Nielsen’s metered market overnight ratings, which cover about 70% of U.S. TV households. That’s down about 16% from the 22.5/37 rating generated by the 2017 Oscars.
