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The TV audience for the 2026 Oscars declined some, in keeping with a pattern from other recent awards shows.

Sunday’s 98th Academy Awards drew 17.86 million viewers on ABC and Hulu, based on Nielsen’s big data plus panel ratings. That’s down about 9 percent from last year’s Oscars , which drew 19.69 million viewers for a post-pandemic high, and the smallest audience for the awards since 2022, when 16.68 million people watched.

The show delivered a 3.92 rating among adults 18-49 (equivalent to about 5.34 million people in that age group), a 14 percent decline from 4.54 last year.

On the plus side, the Oscars maintained its usual spot as the most watched primetime entertainment telecast of the season.…