80th Oscars Score Lowest Ratings Ever

By Chris Georg
21:36, February 25th 2008
75 votes
Vote this story
80th Oscars Score Lowest Ratings Ever

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Everything about the broadcast seemed somehow out-of-date or just thrown together, like the glitziest dress rehearsal in showbiz history.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.



© 2007 - 2009 - eFluxMedia
dotclear

Other News in

dotclear
Latest videos in Specials
And Finally Hair Do nots
Rocky Mountain News Closing...
Love is in the air balloon
T.I. Says No to Parties and...
Which Jonas Brother Will...

dotclear
Specials You are here: Specials
» Blogs   » Specials   
E-mail To A Friend Print RSS Text size: Decrease font size Increase font size
dotclear
dotclear
dotclear

Interested In This Topic?

News Alert will keep you informed. Find out more.
dotclear
Photos Gallery
dotclear