Oscars 2020 broadcast hits all-time low viewership, down 20% from last year

While the Academy Awards honoured Parasite as best picture and made history as the first foreign-language film to win the award, the telecast, however, reached its smallest audience ever of 23.6 million viewers. According to international media reports, the audience for the Oscars was down 20 per cent from last year. It is believed that as Oscars were held sooner in the year than usual, it may have prevented the show from building buzz. 

The Oscars also went hostless for the second time straight and opened with a rousing production number from Janelle Monae and a crisp comic monologue with Steve Martin and Chris Rock. Several critics reportedly also called the show 'too predictable and boring' while some said that they missed having a host as they believed that a host could have given the broadcast a shape and a voice when nothing else provides them. According to reports, for much of the 2000s, the Oscars have hovered between 35 and 45 million viewers and often is also the second most-watched television program of the year. 

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Oscars 2020: Biggest milestone

However, the award show also had some surprises and few indelible moments as the actors who took the four biggest prizes, Joaquin Phoenix, Renée Zellweger, Brad Pitt and Laura Dern had also swept previous awards. Oscars also saw the award for Original Score with a 42-piece orchestra. The orchestra played a medley of all the nominees which was conducted by a woman. This is the first time this happened in the history of Oscars.  

Taika Waititi also became the first person of native descent to win Best Adapted Screenplay for Jojo Rabbit. He is also the first of indigenous descent to be nominated in the Adapted Screenplay category, which by default made him the first person of the indigenous descent to win. South Korean film director Bong Joon Ho's Parasite created history by becoming the first non-English speaking film to win the Best Film Oscar on February 9. Not only that, the film won big at the Oscars 2020 as it also won Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best International feature as well.

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