The Oscars drew just 23million viewers on Sunday night, six million fewer than it did last year.

A total of 23.6million tuned in to watch the show on ABC and it got a rating of 5.3 rating among adults 18-49, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

That is a significant decrease in rating from last year, when 29.56million tuned in and the rating was 7.7.

It was the first time producers Stephanie Allain and Lynette Howell Taylor were in charge of the show. For the second year running, there was no host.

Steve Martin and Chris Rock present the first award at the 92nd Academy Awards

Producers Lynette Howell Taylor (left) and Stephanie Allain (right) were in charge of the event for the first time

Before the event, they said they would have to 'roll with whatever' came their way.

They did say that they wanted to appeal to 'a global audience'.

'Lynette and I have always embraced diversity and inclusion in our work and we already had plans before the nominations were announced to celebrate that, so I think you’ll see that in the presenters and performers,' Allain said at a press conference last week.

Beyond that, they said they wanted people to be 'surprised'.

One of the biggest surprises of the night was Eminem's shock performance.

Many in the audience were thrilled with his unexpected return to the stage, while some - namely Martin Scorsese - seemed utterly perplexed by it.

The show's producers said afterwards that they were glad they were able to keep it a secret.

Allain, left, and Howell Taylor, right, at Sunday night's Oscars working backstage

Allain is a staunch Democrat who posts frequently about her political leanings

'So we reached out [to Eminem] to see if that was something he might want to be involved in. He said yes.

'We’ve been holding onto it for a while. It was nice that we surprised people — we don’t usually get to surprise anybody in this day and age,' she said.

Howell Taylor is relatively unpolitical on social media.

She declares interest in causes like promoting women in film, but largely balances posts about her work project with photographs of her children.

Allain, on the other hand, is proudly 'woke' and liberal.

She often posts pro-choice memes and quotes, and has shared photographs from women's marches in the past.

Ricky Gervais, a former host of the Oscars, said this on Twitter on Monday morning

Viewers were unimpressed with Sunday night's show, which they said was full of 'woke' celebrities

Viewers were nauseated by the number of celebrities who used their acceptance speeches as an opportunity to make a political statement.

Joaquin Phoenix talked about how mankind 'plundered nature's resources' and complained about the artificial insemination of cows.

Brad Pitt complained about the recent impeachment trial and how former national security adviser John Bolton was not allowed to testify at it.

While their complaints were the most memorable, there were plenty others.

Documentary filmmaker Julia Reichert made a Marxist call 'workers of the world' to 'unite'.

Jane Fonda made a statement about waste and Sigourney Weaver said 'all women are superheroes'.

Many viewers called the stars 'hypocrites'.

The Oscars' ratings has been in decline in recent years. Last year's was the first time in years that the viewer numbers went up.