Once the most viewed, non-sports TV show of any year, the ratings for the Oscars (presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences [AMPAS]) are now in the tank. Peaking in 1998 with over 57 million watchers, the decline was gradual, but in the last five years it has been sharp—from the low 30 millions in 2017 to the low 20 millions in 2020 to just over 10 million in 2021.
Some say this is due to the oversaturation of awards shows in general (which is true), but it’s mostly because of the political soap boxing of recent hosts (Jimmy Kimmel, in particular), and the winners who use their 30-second acceptance speeches to insult half of the people watching the show.
