Was it something Jon Stewart said? With 32 million viewers, last night’s Academy Awards telecast appears to be the least-watched Oscars in history. Preliminary numbers indicate that Sunday night’s show was down 21 percent in viewers from the previous year, when The Departed won best picture, and down 42 percent during Oscar’s peak season, when Titanic won in the 1998 ceremony. The previous low for an Oscar telecast was in 2003 (33.05 million), the year Chicago was named best pic.
Even so, the Oscars still rank as the second most-watched entertainment program this season behind the debut of American Idol last month (33.4 million).
I’m not that shocked. People tune into the Oscars to root on movies they saw and actors they know and love. The only best picture nominee to be a box office hit was Juno and, with the exception of George Cloony, most of the actors and actresses were not well known stars.
I just didn’t hear a a lot of people who were excited about the movies this year. In fact, the question I heard most around the office today was “What was No Country for Old Men about?”. People weren’t going to stay up until midnight to see what movie they never heard of was going to get the award.
I really hope they don’t blame Jon Stewart or the writers for the low ratings. It really comes down to the nominees. In years when the nominees are the highest grossing films (like Titanic) people tune in. End of story.
I actually stopped watching after the best actress award was announced, since I knew that Daniel Day Lewis would win, and No Country for Old Men would win. I was surprised with Tilda Swinton’s win, and her speech was priceless (making fun of George’s “batsuit.”) And Marion Coutillard (spelling?)’s reaction to her win was truly a great moment, as was the win for Best Original Song from the movie “once.” Otherwise…zzzz…..
I’m not surprised. I love movies and I thought that it was incredibly boring. Jon is great on his own show, but a terrible Oscar host. It would be more enjoyable if it really celebrated movies and didn’t try to be “current” with a lot of stupid humor. Cut it down to two hours, give out awards and only perform the songs that are enjoyable (making that poor girl sing about cleaning the toilet without the animation was just cruel). The last hour was best–it moved along with awards and without awkward humor and bad songs.
Uh…could it be the fact that there were a million needless montages? how about the fact that the people and movies nominated were barely watched by the masses? i think had more popular movies like Pirate of the Caribbean or Bourne Ultimatum been been nonminated in anything other than costumes and sound, more people would have cared.
I didn’t watch because I have not seen any of the movies. Also, where were the major movie stars? Brad and Angelina, Reese Witherspoon, Julia Roberts, Leo DeCaprio? I realize they were not nominated, but thats the problems. The nominees were mostly unheard of, so people weren’t interested. I think another problem is, there is just no mystery anymore with the celebrities. In the days of Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, and then later with Paul Newman and Robert Redford, we didn’t have the intense media coverage and paparazzi 24/7. It was a treat and exciting to see them at the Oscars, because you weren’t bombarded with them on mags, internet, etc…. It just seems that in the last 10 or so years, Oscar just isn’t that exciting anymore.
I turned it off the moment George Clooney said there’s one thing constant about the Oscar awards: it’s long. Ooops, way past my bedtime, sorry…
I hope that next year we will see Leo, Kate Winslet, Meryl Streep and Bradgelina get nominated… then I’ll tune in. I haven’t heard or seen half the nominees. Thats what the Indie Spirit awards are for, isn’t it. I wanna see the big stars and the great movies nominated. I get it already, indie flicks deserve a spot, but don’t overdue it with the indies taking up 80% of the nods. Bring back Julia, Brad and Jack… Bring back the old Oscars filled with stars, and not just as presenters. Thanks
I turned it off after Ruby Dee lost. She was our only chance for an American and a person of “color” to win….after that I knew who was going to win – DDL, Bardem, NC, Marion and the Once song. It was an efficient show. But I agree with the others — there are no “stars” and the movies are not “big”. I can’t remember the last time I actually cried at the end of a movie — maybe it was 3 years ago, M$B, or maybe it was Freedom Writers…but since that time I just haven’t had any emotional attachment to a movie. There were very good entertaining movies like Amern. Gangster, but that’s one out of how many? And I’m not into the toilet humor comedies that Hollywood is putting out. If I have to catchup on movies I download from AMZ Unbox or Movielink. Jon was good.
To be expected. I’ve tried to see the movies nominated but the theaters near me never showed them and by the time they were available on DVD I just didn’t have the time or wasn’t in the mood for their serious gloomy atmosphear. It’s a shame that just because a movie is popular that it shouldn’t be considered and what can we still say about comedy actors…
They should have tried leaking the info that Owen Wilson was presenting (his publicist is a GENIUS – by scoring him a presenting gig, she gets his face back out there in a BIG way with miminal work from him and gets a chance to remind people that he is Academy-award nominated – so, you know, just forget all about all that OTHER stuff.)
I also blame the nominees, not Jon. I mean, I had never even heard of any of the winners prior to this Oscar season. That doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve to win, but it definitely effects people tuning in.
Jon Stewart?? That guy was funny way back in ’94. is he funny now?? absolutely not. Dear Jon – you hate George Bush. we get it. please write some fresh material…..
I didn’t bother watching the Oscars this year because I didn’t care for any of the nominees in the major categories–except for Atonement which I knew wasn’t favored to win. Most of the movies that I thought were amongst the best of the year weren’t even nominated in the major categories, such as Dan in Real Life, Lars and the Real Girl, Across the Universe, The Kite Runner, and Waitress. Why should I watch the Oscars? Especially when they honor such crappy movies like No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood.
It really was just the lack of blockbuster hits and popular stars nominated. I personally loved that because it meant that interesting, well done films were rewarded instead of more Oscar bait. But I could see where that would make people less likely to watch.
2 words. Writer’s Strike.