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The 90th annual Academy Awards will almost certainly go down as the least-watched Oscars telecast in modern TV history.
The year-to-year decline will also be substantial, likely at least 15 to 20 percent behind last years event.
Smaller audiences dont automatically translate into smaller profits for ABC.
Why are advertisers paying more fewer eyeballs?
The Oscars are still a great way for ABC to promote new shows.
WhileGood Docwasan out-of-the-gate smash, the other four ABC shows that premiered last fall were ratings duds.
The Academy is protected from lower Oscars ratings for (at least) a decade.
Update:Preliminary national numbers just came in, and theyre as bad as expected.
Per Nielsen, the Oscars attracted an average audience of 26.5 million viewers.
ABC hasnt released demographic data yet, but itll likely show a more dramatic decline.
