The TV Zone

Is it possible that last night's telecast of the Academy Awards was the lowest viewed in TV history?

Yes, it's possible, but...

We can tell you this much: The telecast of the “80th Annual Academy Awards” was seen by an average audience of 32 million viewers. That is, in fact, the lowest figure since Nielsen began tabulating total viewers all the way back to 1975. For the most part, it ain't even close: Last year's show was seen by 40.2 million, and the year before, 38.9 million (when "Crash" won best picture.) "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" Oscar night (43.5 million; 2/29/04) was the high-water mark of the decade, unless you like to start your decade in 2000, when the "American Beauty" broadcast topped out at 46 million. "Titanic" (on March 23, '98, was the high-water mark of the last couple decades, when 55 million tuned in.)

"Chicago" (3/23/03) was 'til now, the low-water mark, with 33 million viewers.

Now, back to our trivia question: Lowest EVER? It's tricky to answer because Nielsen didn't tabulate "viewers" but only households in the prehistoric days of TV (pre-'75), yet the Oscars telecasts were routinely among the year's most viewed programs - or at least one can easily surmise from the available data. For much of the '50s and '60s, Oscar telecasts often scored ratings in the high 40s, while shares (the percentage of audience that's actually tuned into something) occasionally soared into the '70s. On March 19, 1953, the show even got an 82 share! Of course, viewership was probably no where near 30 million because TVs (after all) had only begun their widespread penetration a few years earlier - in '47-48 - when the first network shows were broadcast.

So, I guess we've answered our own question: NOT the lowest viewed.

But good Lord, what HAPPENED? By any measure, last night's show was a bomb. Some quickie theories:

1.) Too boring and overlong (see reviews, below.)

2.) Jon Stewart is swell, but no Johnny Carson (or, gulp, even Whoopi.)

3.) No one had ever seen the movies, and the movies they did see - "There Will be Blood!!" - were not exactly the sort one cheers for at Oscar time.

4.) Everyone in the potential viewing audience had heard for so many months that the writers strike was gonna derail the big show, they decided (what the hell), don't bother to watch anyway.

5.) Everyone was assuming Billy Bush was going to be the MC of this one as well.

6.) Jack Nicholson was sober (shows seem to get much higher ratings when he attends several pre-awards parties, for some reason.)

(Above: Bang-bang. You're dead. Oscars loves "No Country for Old Men" but viewers do no reciprocate. And how.)

That was no broadcast for old men. But then it never is. Ending late, sometimes with the rising sun, Oscars telecasts tend to bring out the worst in critics, who look for any reason to hate the show and find the ceaseless nature of this beast the most convenient one.

But me? No. Not me. This one ended at around a quarter to twelve which is sort of like a reprieve - an unexpected and thoroughly welcome early release for good behavior. Whom to thank? Not just Jon Stewart, who was in fact brisk. Not just the writers' strike which meant (I'm spitballing here, of course) that writers didn't have enough time to over-write this thing. It was helpful that most of the winners didn't speak English. One tends to be gloriously brief in one's acceptance speech when one tends not to understand a word of what one is saying.

But we should be deeply, eternally grateful to Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men" winners over and over and over. I think they got up on stage fifteen times, or something like that. Each instance, Joel said about ten words, Ethan just two ("thank you.") They're kind of like the Penn and Teller of directors - Ethan's Teller, of course. It must be that austere Minnesota temperament, but Ethan - shorter of stature and words - is the perfect, or at least, ideal winner. Imagine if these two were the type of winner who needs to thank every aunt and uncle four generations back? Last night's show wouldn't end until Wednesday. If these guys were also actors, writers and set designers, they woulda won those awards too and we'd have all been in bed by 10.

What of Stewart? For the most part, pretty good. His monologue (you can always tell whether a show will be excruciating, depending on these five minutes) was solid and often funny. Discriminating tastes may have found offense in the Barack Obama/"Gaydolf Titler" line - but such tastes would find offense in anything. I thought he was fine, overall.

Clips? Yeah, a lot and none particularly nourishing (there were too many, given that this was the 80th.) Political jokes? A few (see above) though I can't remember any (from Stewart) with any bite. The writers' strike? Seemed like ancient history - forgotten already, as if nothing had really happened over the last three months. Diablo Cody dedicated her award to the writers; I'm sure they all appreciated the gesture, even though meaningless. Stewart called last night's show "makeup sex," but the broadcast's relative brevity, overall garage-band rougher-around-the-edges feel, and gloom-and-doom nominees/winners list gave the sense that the long enforced period of chastity was even better.

In the midst of strike on/off meetings and madness, the Writers Guild actually found time this weekend to announce the winners of its annual Writers Guild Awards. No big ceremony shindig this time, though. Guess they’ve got something else to deal with.

The TV winners include:

Dramatic series – “The Wire” (HBO, photo above).
Comdy series – “30 Rock” (NBC).
New series – “Mad Men” (AMC).
Episodic drama – “The Sopranos” episode “The Second Coming” (HBO).
Episodic comedy – “The Office” episode “The Job” (NBC).
Long form, original – “Pandemic” movie (Hallmark).
Long form, adaptation – “The Company” (TNT).
Animation – “The Simpsons” episode “Kill Gil” (Fox).
Comedy/variety – “The Colbert Report” (Comedy Central).
Daytime serial – “The Young and the Restless” (CBS).
Children’s script – “Flight 29 Down” episode “Look Who’s Not Talking” (Discovery Kids).
Children’s long form/special – “Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board” (Disney).

For full info on all the winners, see the WGA site here.

Without the benefit of press release or lofty pronouncement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, I'm pretty sure I can now say the following with near-absolute certainty:

ABC's Feb. 24 telecast of the 2008 Oscars telecast from the Kodak theater will go forward as scheduled, even if the writers strike remains in force.

Here's why: Yesterday's agreement between Lionsgate Entertainment and the Writers Guild of America.

Until now, I've pretty much paid scant attention to these scattered - and seemingly small - WGA/small studio side-deals. Reason: They're SMALL. Yes, the deal with Worldwide Pants got "Late Show with David Letterman" back on the air with writers, but the deal with the Weinstein Co. was insignificant because the Weinstein guys aren't tied to Miramax anymore, so they're hardly major players. WGA also secured deals with Tom Cruise's United Artists, Spyglass Entertainment, MRC, Jackson Bites, Mandate Films, and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. Nice, but again - nothing earth-shattering.

But given Hollywood's intricate and often hidden links, both the Lionsgate and Mandate deals effectively mean that the WGA can no longer pull a Golden Globes on the Oscars telecast. (What's a "Golden Globe?" That's a showbiz fate worse than death - in which a network is forced to scrap its profitable awards telecast because writers and actors have threatened to boycott, and you, the network, are then forced to mount a show anchored by second-rate talent, which will be the butt of industry jokes and worse, get terrible ratings.)

But Lionsgate is massively different. Reason: It'll will have significant representation at this year's awards: Julie Christie got a nod for Lionsgate's "Away from Her" (which also got a best adapted screenplay nod; Lionsgate also got nods for "3:10 to Yuma" and "Sicko" - best doc feature.) This is the clincher, though - Mandate, owned by Lionsgate, is one of the production company's behind "Juno."

Oscar noms - you don't need to be reminded - are money in the bank for producers, but the REAL pot of gold lies at the end of the Oscars telecast; a win is a huge boost to both your theatrical and DVD sales.

Why would the WGA penalize the company it just signed a pact with - Lionsgate - by picketing the Oscars, and forcing the Screen Actors Guild to do same? It wouldn't.

Until now, these WGA side-deals would appear to carry little risk for the WGA, and best of all, they put writers back to work. But they also undercut the WGA's hand. Threatening the Oscars' telecast is certainly one key reason why the producers agreed to get back to the bargaining table. But if this is a highstakes poker game - it is - the Lionsgate deal may now mean the WGA is holding only a pair of deuces.

View & Vote: Watch Oscar-nominated movies then pick the winners.

Oscars fans can watch this year’s nominations announced live tomorrow morning on TV or, for the first time, online.

Tuesday's 8:30 a.m. (ET) event will be streamed at the official site oscar.com, which also offers bios, clips, Academy Awards history info, photo galleries and more. Expect Jan. 22 TV coverage on the network morning shows as well as showbiz outlets like E!

The 2008 Oscar ceremony itself takes place Sunday, Feb. 24 at 8 p.m. in Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre. The ceremony is due to be carried live on ABC, which is doubtless hoping for a settlement of the Writers Guild strike to avoid a celeb-free repeat of this month’s Golden Globes debacle.

In the meantime, the Screen Actors Guild has received a WGA waiver for its Jan. 27 "SAG Awards," so expect a star-filled broadcast Sunday at 8 p.m. (ET) on TNT and TBS.