Surprise End to Oscars Doesn't Deliver a Bigger Audience for ABC

  • Viewership of 32.9 million fell 4.4 percent from a year ago
  • ‘La La Land’ mistakenly named winner instead of ‘Moonlight’

Barry Jenkins and the cast accept the award for best picture for 'Moonlight' at the Oscars in Los Angeles on Feb. 26, 2017.

Photographer: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
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Despite one of the most dramatic endings in Academy Awards history, ABC’s broadcast of the Oscars garnered the smallest viewership in almost a decade.

The show drew 32.9 million viewers, Walt Disney Co.’s ABC said Monday in a statement. That was down 4.4 percent from the 34.4 million who tuned in a year earlier and the smallest audience since 2008, according to ratings data from Nielsen.