Elon Musk says winning Oscar becomes 'embarrassment' as audience drops

The world’s richest person Elon Musk has reacted to the drop in Oscars viewership after the 98th Academy Awards was hosted by comedian Conan O´Brien.

The number of people in the United States tuning in live to watch the Oscars dropped by nine percent from last year, viewing figures released Tuesday showed.

Around 17.9 million people saw political thriller "One Battle After Another," starring Leonardo DiCaprio, take home the top prize at Hollywood´s premier awards gala on Sunday.

That included people watching on the ABC broadcast network and streamer Hulu, both of which are owned by Disney.

The 98th Academy Awards was hosted by comedian Conan O´Brien, and featured musical segments that paid tribute to the Netflix phenomenon "K-Pop Demon Hunters" and box-office hit "Sinners," Ryan Coogler´s vampire meditation on race relations in America.

Michael B. Jordan, who played twin brothers Smoke and Stack in "Sinners," took home the best actor Oscar, after a tight race in which Timothee Chalamet had been expected to triumph for his unlikeable ping pong player in "Marty Supreme."

The Academy Awards broadcast, which once routinely drew audiences of 40 million, saw its viewership plummet to 10.4 million in the pandemic strangled year of 2021.

Since then, it had been gradually recovering viewership, until this year.

Commenting on the decline, Elon Musk tweeted “Winning an Oscar has become an embarrassment.”