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    The Oscars get their biggest audience in 5 years despite dominance of “Anora” and other small films

    By SHOOTNo Comments241 Views
    Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande perform "Defying Gravity" during the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

    By Andrew Dalton, Entertainment Writer

    LOS ANGELES (AP) --

    Smaller movies didn’t mean smaller viewer numbers for the Oscars.

    An estimated 19.7 viewers watched Sunday night’s 97th Academy Awards ceremony, the biggest audience in five years, according to figures released by ABC on Tuesday.

    The triumph of “Anora,” which won five Oscars including best picture, and other relatively little-seen favorites and winners still brought a lift over the 19.5 million viewers from last year, when the major hit “Oppenheimer” won the top categories and the even bigger hit “Barbie” was a major presence.

    The Conan O’Brien-hosted telecast did have the benefit of 10 nominations for the big hit “Wicked” and an opening performance from its stars, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. The film won for its production design and costumes.

    The show had an especially big lift among people aged 18 to 49, driven by mobile and laptop watches from younger viewers. And the network said it was the most watched primetime entertainment show of 2025.

    Still, the upward trend comes from an all-time low during the pandemic, and changes in viewing habits for virtually all live events other than the Super Bowl mean the numbers the show once had are very unlikely ever to be reached again,

    A high water mark of 55 million people watched “Titanic” clean up in 1998, and the show didn’t have fewer than 30 million viewers until 2018, when it dipped to 26.5 million. The bottom fell out with the pandemic-diminished show in 2021, seen by 9.85 million. It began rebounding in 2022 — the year of Will Smith’s notorious slap of Chris Rock — with 16.6 million.

    And Hulu’s first-time livestream of this year’s Oscars cut off in the final moments of the show, making viewers miss Mikey Madison’s best actress win and the best picture win of “Anora” in real time.

    The Oscars still significantly outdraws other awards shows. Its nearly 20 million viewers were far more than the Grammys’ 15.4 million.

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    Tags:ABCHuluOscars



    EU accuses TikTok of “addictive design” that harms children, seeks changes to protect users

    Friday, February 6, 2026
    The icon for the TikTok video sharing app is seen on a smartphone in Marple Township, Pa., Feb. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

    The European Union on Friday accused TikTok of breaching the bloc's digital rules with "addictive design" features that lead to compulsive use by children, in preliminary charges that strike at the heart of the popular video sharing app's operating model.

    EU regulators said their two-year investigation found that TikTok hasn't done enough to assess how features such as autoplay and infinite scroll could harm the physical and mental health of users, including minors and "vulnerable adults."

    The European Commission said it believes TikTok should change the "basic design" of its service. The commission is the EU's executive arm and enforcer of the 27-nation bloc's Digital Services Act, a sweeping rulebook that requires social media companies to clean up their platforms and protect users, under threat of hefty fines.

    TikTok denied the accusations.

    "The Commission's preliminary findings present a categorically false and entirely meritless depiction of our platform, and we will take whatever steps are necessary to challenge these findings through every means available to us," the company said in a statement.

    TikTok's features including infinite scrolling, autoplay, push notifications, and highly personalized recommender systems "lead to the compulsive use of the app, especially for our kids, and this poses major risks to their mental health and wellbeing," Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said at a press briefing in Brussels.

    "The measures that TikTok has in place are simply not enough," he said.

    The company now has a chance to defend itself and reply to the commission's findings. Regnier said "if they don't do this properly," Brussels could issue a so-called non-compliance decision and possible fine worth up to 6% of... Read More

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