The 2025 edition of the Oscars drew a smaller total audience than a year ago — but posted gains among younger viewers.
Sunday’s telecast, hosted by Conan O’Brien, averaged 18.07 million viewers on ABC and Hulu, according to Nielsen fast national ratings and internal data from Disney. The show marked the first time the Academy Awards were live streamed, though Hulu suffered a number of technical glitches during the evening, including cutting off the final two awards of the night for some users.
The total audience Sunday fell by about 7 percent comparison to last year’s show, which hit a four-year high of 19.49 million viewers on ABC, with no live stream. Final figures, which will be released Tuesday, may pull the show a little closer to the 2024 tally.
Despite the overall dip, though, Sunday’s Oscars posted gains among adults 18-49 and adults 18-34, hitting a post-pandemic high in the latter demographic. The show posted a 3.92 rating (equivalent to about 5.25 million people) among adults 18-49, up from 3.82 a year ago and scoring the second best mark since 2020 (the 2023 ceremony had a 4.03 rating).
Among adults 18-34, the Oscars’ 3.17 rating (equivalent to 2.27 million viewers in that age range) was the highest for the show since 2020.
As is usually the case, the Oscars is the most watched awards show of the season to date, beating out the 15.4 million viewers for the Grammys a month ago. It also edged the Grammys’ 3.91 rating among adults 18-49. The telecast is also the largest primetime entertainment show (i.e., excluding sports) on broadcast TV in 2024-25, again taking the lead from the Grammys.
This story will be updated as final ratings figures become available.
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