Oscar voters may have loved Anora, but viewers at home still need to get to know her. Preliminary ratings for the 97th Oscars are in, and this year’s independent film-dominated show saw a 7% dip from 2024’s Barbenheimer barnburner.
Per early Nielsen fast national ratings, the telecast brought in an average of 18.1 million total viewers versus the 19.5 million who tuned in last year to watch Christopher Nolan’s nearly billion-dollar grossing Oppenheimer sweep the major awards. It also ranks below the 2023 ceremony, when 18.8 million viewers tuned in to watch Everything Everywhere All at Once claim the Best Picture prize.
But this year’s Oscars did finish above the other awards shows that have aired in 2025 thus far. The Golden Globes averaged 9.3 million viewers in January, while the Grammys drew 15.4 million viewers last month.
This was also the first year that the Oscars were livestreamed on Hulu, and those streaming numbers were included in the night-of ratings. With apologies to Elphaba, though, the show’s Hulu debut was accompanied by a wicked glitch. There were multiple reports of streaming issues throughout the show, with some viewers unable to watch grand finale where Anora star Mikey Madison scored a Best Actress victory over presumptive favorite Demi Moore and the film itself took home Best Picture.
“Yesterday evening, we experienced technical and live stream issues on Hulu which impacted some Oscars viewers,” a Disney spokesperson told ADWEEK. “We apologize for the experience and will make a full replay of the event available as soon as possible.”
In an exclusive interview ahead of the Oscars, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer expressed hopes that the addition of a Hulu livestream would help this year’s Oscars defy recent awards-show ratings gravity.
“We have to think about the metric for success differently as our viewing habits change,” he noted, citing plans to include night-of linear and digital ratings as well as a seven-day ratings number and social media engagement. “The days of just saying how many people watched a show on linear TV night-of has evolved—and that’s good.”
