Sharjah24 – Reuters: U.S. television ratings for Sunday's reinvented Oscars ceremony plummeted to a new low, according to preliminary Nielsen data Monday.
And the winner of the least-watched Oscar ceremony of all time goes to… this year’s show.
Preliminary data released Monday showed that the TV audience for Sunday's Academy Awards plunged to a record low of 9.85 million viewers.
That’s a whopping a 58% decline from last year's telecast, which drew 23.6 million people.
ABC, which aired ceremony, can take some solace in knowing that the steep slide reflects a trend among live award shows produced during the global health crisis.
TV audiences for September's Emmys and March’s Grammy Awards also drew their lowest audiences ever. Ratings for the Golden Globes in February fell 60% from a year earlier.
Hoping to draw viewers while adhering to safety measures, this year's producers tried a few new things. To create a more intimate setting with only the nominees and their guests, the awards were broadcast for the first time at a historic train station in downtown Los Angeles.
The locale, however, provided fodder TV critics who found the show boring or disjointed to label it a “train wreck” or as having gone “off the rails.”
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