Oscar Ratings A Dud
Early Nielsen Reports Sunday's Viewership Could Be Lowest Ever
35NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 2008
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The Oscar statue and sign at Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
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(AP) The Oscars are a ratings dud. Nielsen Media Research says preliminary ratings for the 80th annual Academy Awards telecast are 14 percent lower than the least-watched ceremony ever.
Nielsen said Monday that overnight ratings are also 21 percent lower than last year, when "The Departed" was named best picture.
The least-watched Oscars ceremony ever was in 2003, when there were 33 million viewers.
Nielsen has no estimate yet on how many people watched Sunday night, but based on ratings from the nation's biggest markets, the Oscars will be hard-pressed to avoid an ignominious record.
The show had a 21.9 rating and 33 share.
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The public don''t care what a cinematographer has to say about the Oscar he''s won. Unless there is martial arts in the foreign language film, most Americans don''t want to read subtitles. Try to make it two hours instead of four. Make it a pleasure to watch instead of a test of endurance.
I have a funny feeling that next year''s ceremony will be EXACTLY like this year''s.
You got that right, oleander8.
It makes my toes curl. Especially when they flub their line like poor old Helen Mirren did. Why don''t they just let them ad lib something or heck, let them get right to the point? Anything to move the proceedings along. The cutesy scripted banter between a male & female presenter makes me wanna puke. Ugh.
If this doesn''t motivate the Academy Awards
powers-that-be to chuck it all & start fresh then nothing will.
I wonder how many female viewers tuned out after the Red Carpet pre-Oscars show?
Keep it up Hollywood. I''m sure FORCING us to watch your ideological dribble and relentless violence is probably something you like to have happen. The fact of the matter is, we don''t have to. The reason we don''t choose to is that, as an industry, Hollywood has become a cheap piece of ***.
Can''t wait for Amazing Race to come back . . .