Oscars 2020 Broadcast Just Set A Very Bad Record

The Academy Awards–the biggest night for movies–ended with the smallest telecast viewership ever in the history of the ceremony. The numbers are in, and the live TV ratings on ABC show that 23.6 million people tuned for the ceremony, which ran for 3 hours and 35 minutes.

This is down 20 percent compared to the 29.6 million people who tuned in for 2019’s show, according to numbers crunched by Deadline.

While the 2020 Oscars viewership numbers have fallen, the show remained the most-watched non-sport entertainment special on TV since last year’s Oscars. The 23.6 million people who watched this year is above the ratings for this year’s Grammy Awards (18.7 million) and the Golden Globes (18.3 million). By comparison, this year’s Super Bowl drew 99.9 million viewers on live TV.

The ratings for the Oscars have fallen every year since 2014, when 43.7 million people tuned in to see 12 Years A Slave win Best Picture. Also of note is that these numbers are for the traditional linear TV broadcast stream only. The Oscars also are broadcast online, so these viewership numbers likely only reflect a percentage of the total viewership.

In an attempt to improve ratings, the Oscars considered a big change in 2019 with a new “Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film” category that would have given an award to the kind of big-budget, blockbuster movies that the Academy does not often recognize. However, this category was axed before the 2019 Oscars, and there are no plans to implement it in the future.

2020’s Best Picture winner was Parasite, which made history at the event as the first non-English language movie to win the top honor. Parasite won a total of four Academy Awards, while Joker was also a big winner, with Joaquin Phoenix taking home Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance as the title character. The Martin Scorsese Netflix movie, The Irishman, was the biggest loser of the night, as it won no awards despite receiving 10 nominations.

For more on the 92nd Academy Awards, check out GameSpot’s full rundown of all the winners.