The Oscars will stream live for the very first time on Hulu

The Academy Awards ceremony is streaming live for the very first time in its 97-year history. The Oscars will stream on Hulu at the same time as it airs on traditional network TV via ABC. The ceremony starts on March 2 at 7PM ET, though there’s a live red carpet show that kicks off a half hour before that.

It’s very strange that it took this long but, whatever, I’ll take it. I don’t even have regular TV, so Hulu will be the only way I’ll be able to watch the telecast live, aside from picking up a shady stream somewhere. It’s likely the same for many of you reading this.

To that end, the Hulu stream could lead to a serious uptick in ratings, with some industry experts saying that the telecast will hit 30 million live viewers. The Oscars haven’t gotten that many eyeballs since 2017 when Moonlight famously snatched victory from the jaws of La La Land defeat. The 2024 ceremony drew 21.5 million viewers, but this was a huge uptick from the COVID years.

This year’s broadcast is being hosted by the king of hot wings himself, Conan O’Brien. The awards nominees won’t be announced until January 17 and there are plenty of flicks that could end up in the top spot. These include Wicked, The Brutalist, Anora and I Saw the TV Glow, among many others.