Television
For the Oscars, it was a stacked deck
By Toni Fitzgerald
Feb 26, 2008 - 8:40:32 AM

Blame it on a spate of critically lauded but overwhelmingly dark movies that failed to generate big box office numbers leading up to this year’s Academy Awards.

Or blame it on the writers’ strike, which severely hamstringed the entire awards season and led fewer stars than usual to turn out for the annual fete.

Or perhaps foreigners dominating the major award categories or a rain-delayed NASCAR race that drew away some eyeballs.

Whatever the reason, and there were plenty to choose from, Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony generated the lowest turnout in history, according to Nielsen data issued yesterday, averaging a mere 32 million total viewers.

That’s 1 million fewer than the previous record low of 33 million in 2003. Among adults 18-49 the show also hit a new low of a 10.7 rating, off 14 percent from the previous record of 12.5 set five years ago.

Viewership was down 20 percent from last year’s 40 million and 32 percent with 18-49s, from a 14.1.

ABC pointed out yesterday that since last year, the level of DVR households in Nielsen’s sample has more than doubled, accounting for more than 20 percent, which may have a slight impact on the numbers. Still, delayed viewing levels for live events like the Oscars tend to be low and probably wouldn’t have a significant impact on the numbers.

Instead, it was a perfect storm of problems that sent Academy Awards viewing tumbling, not the least of which was a year where, despite a number of record-breaking hits at the box office, the films with the most nominations elicited little more than a yawn from viewers.

Box office is an important factor in Oscar viewership. The most-watched broadcast of the past five years came in 2004, when smash hit “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” grabbed best picture.

The most-watched telecast ever was in 1998, when all-time box office champ “Titanic” swept the major awards.

This year’s contenders had no such popular films. The teen pregnancy comedy “Juno” was the only major nominee to gross more than $100 million, while best picture winner “No Country for Old Men” hasn’t even hit $70 million.

The top films were also a rather depressing lot about murder, deception and revenge that did not provide much escape in a year when real life included the continuance of an unpopular war, the housing market collapse and the start of a possible recession.

And the fact that foreigners dominated the nominations and winners may not have helped. U.S. viewers are more familiar with names like Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks, none of whom were nominated this year, than winners like Javier Bardem, of Spain, and Marion Cotillard, of France.

Plus, Fox’s NASCAR race ran into Oscar coverage because of a rain delay, and it pulled pretty solid ratings during the first hour of the telecast.

But the No. 1 cause of Oscar deflation may have been the same thing that’s been pummeling TV ratings for weeks, the writers’ strike.

The strike had endangered the Oscars until just two weeks before the show, when it ended and cleared the way for the ceremony, which actors had threatened to boycott in solidarity with the writers.

The strike had already claimed the Golden Globe awards ceremony and sapped the star power of the People’s Choice Awards, meaning viewers didn’t get the usual chance to get familiar with the nominees in the weeks leading up to the Oscars.

Plus, ABC didn’t have much time to promote the ceremony or even line up stars to present at the awards, where many critics noted the large number of low-wattage presenters like the stars of “Grey’s Anatomy” and comedians Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen.