This year's annual Academy Awards ceremony went on without a buzz on most levels, which reflected in Sunday's telecast ratings: the worst in twenty years, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Following the lowest-rated Emmys since 1990, the strike-hindered ratings performance of a severely truncated version of the Golden Globes and a nonstruck airing of the Grammys that nonetheless disappointed, this year's post-strike Oscars presentation wasn't spared either.

A stunningly great year for film turned out to be just a decently entertaining night of television and according to Nielsen Media Research, the preliminary ratings for the 80th annual Academy Awards telecast were 14 percent lower than the least-watched ceremony ever while ABC's very preliminary household metered market overnights, the awards averaged a 21.9 rating/33 share.

Everything about the broadcast seemed somehow out-of-date or just thrown together, like the glitziest dress rehearsal in showbiz history. The Academy Awards are famous for their opening production, while this year we got to watch a noisy, computer-generated animation video showing a delivery truck full of trophies racing through Hollywood. The best-song production numbers were so understaged that they seemed more like something you'd see at a dinner theater than during the Academy Awards.

The previous least-watched Oscars ceremony was in 2003, when only 33 million viewers tuned in while the highest-rated Oscar telecast during the past five years was in 2004, when audience favorite "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" won best picture. The airing was seen by 43.5 million viewers and received a 15.3 rating among adults 18-49.