Variety’s Clayton Davis is actually wondering if the Oscars will ever get back to that record 57 million viewership from 1998 — that’s when “Titanic” won the big prize and James Cameron heralded himself “King of the World.”
My answer: NO. Never again. We won’t ever get close to that figure again. Even if Chris Rock hosts and Will Smith gets nominated for “Emancipation,” the Oscars would still struggle to get even a third of that 1998 telecast’s viewership.
Fact of the matter is that the Oscars have been in a downward spiral for, at least, a decade now. Last year’s ceremony attracted an average audience of 15.4 viewers, making them the second least-watched telecast in the show's history.
Here’s ratings data:
1998: 55.2 million
2002: 41.7 million
2006: 38.9 million
2009: 36.3 million
2016: 34.4 million
2018: 26.5 million
2020: 23.6 million
2021: 9.85 million
Even if you don’t count last year’s pandemic-set, and very strange, Soderbergh-directed ceremony, Oscar ratings have been consistently going down on a yearly basis.
Let’s take this past Spring’s ceremony as an example. Do you really think people cared to find out if “Belfast,” “Drive My Car” or, eventual winner, “CODA” would upset frontrunner “The Power of the Dog”? Of course not. The Academy has a major problem on their hands, something that a People’s Choice category will not even come close to solving: populist relevance.
Maybe it’s because the token “Oscar movie” just isn’t as culturally relevant as it used to be. One can remember a time when Best Picture winners such as “Gladiator,” “Titanic,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Forrest Gump,” “Dances With Wolves,” “American Beauty” “Chicago” and “The Lord of the Rings” had all actually been seen by millions of Americans. Now? Ask your neighbour and there’s a good chance they‘ve never heard of “CODA” and “Nomadland”.