Sunday’s Oscars ceremony proved to be a triumphant moment for “Parasite” — but not so much for ABC and the filmmaking Academy.

The show, which ran for about 3½ hours, was watched by the smallest audience the event has ever generated.

According to Nielsen, 23.6 million viewers tuned in night to see “Parasite” storm its way to a historic victory. That’s a 20 percent, 6 million viewer drop-off from last year. The Academy’s second straight hostless show posted a 5.3 rating among adults 18-49 in the fast national ratings, a 31 percent dip from 2019.

Last year’s Oscars delivered a 7.7 rating in adults 18-49 and 29.6 million viewers. That viewership figure, while up 12 percent from 2018, represented the second smallest audience ever for an Academy Awards telecast at the time; 2018 delivered the previous smallest viewership audience 26.5 million viewers.

The dismal numbers aren’t entirely surprising. Audiences for awards show in general have been declining in recent years. And, once again, the Oscar field wasn’t exactly packed with mass-audience blockbusters along the lines of “Avengers” or “Star Wars.”

It doesn’t help, either, that despite repeated calls to trim the show’s running time, the producers and the Academy just can’t (or refuse to) bring it in at the allotted three hours.

Of course, it the world of television, it’s all about spinning the numbers. And so ABC on Monday delivered a press release trumpeting how the Oscars stands “as the season’s No. 1 awards show by wide margins over the Grammys and Golden Globes — and dominated Sunday’s social conversations.”

Ok, then.

What ABC didn’t mention is how producers inexplicably left Luke Perry out of the in-memoriam segment, or the utter confusion felt by many viewers over seeing Eminem show up on the Oscar stage to sing an 18-year-old song.

For the record, this year’s Grammys telecast (CBS) was seen by 18.7 million viewers, and the Golden Globes (NBC) were watched by 18.3 million viewers.