Oscars' final viewership numbers are in — and they're way worse than previously feared

The 2018 Academy Awards program was the least-watched Oscars telecast of all time, Variety reported.

Sunday night's four-hour show attracted 26.5 million viewers — down about 19 percent in viewership from 2017, the outlet said.

Preliminary numbers for this year's Academy Awards telecast — which featured more than its fair share of sociopolitical lectures from the microphone — came in early Monday and showed about a 16 percent drop-off in viewership from last year's broadcast.

But Variety noted that the preliminary ratings didn't account for all viewership on the West Coast — nor for the Oscars’ final 48 minutes after 11 p.m. when the biggest awards were handed out.

So the outlet offered some hope prior to the final ratings coming in: "ABC will likely see a lift in the numbers once the final data becomes available later today ..."

Alas, it was not to be.

What were the numbers in previous years?

According to Deadline, the 2017 Oscars were down 4 percent in viewership compared to 2016 — and the 2016 show was down 8 percent from the 2015 broadcast. Deadline noted “a distinct pattern of several years of downward movement for the Oscars.”

How did President Donald Trump react to the Oscars' viewership news?

As you might imagine, Trump seemed to react with glee in a Tuesday morning Twitter post:

Lowest rated Oscars in HISTORY. Problem is, we don’t have Stars anymore - except your President (just kidding, of course)!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 6, 2018

Of course, the president was hit with barbs by Oscars' host Jimmy Kimmel, who has used his late-night talk show as a platform to espouse his left-wing talking points. With the Academy Awards' audience at his feet, Kimmel wasted no time digging into Trump.

“There’s Chadwick Boseman,” Kimmel said over footage of the “Black Panther” actor, CNN said. “The king of Wakanda! Imagine that! A country with a black leader. Wouldn’t that be swell?”

And when Kimmel addressed Jordan Peele, screenwriter of "Get Out" — a horror film that addresses racial issues in America — CNN reported that that host remarked, "None other than President Trump called 'Get Out' the best 3/4 of a movie so far this year."

Kimmel also took shots at Vice President Mike Pence, Fox News and just-departed White House communications director Hope Hicks.

If you can handle it, here's Kimmel's full monologue from Sunday night: