Pop Critics » Best Picture http://popcritics.com Reviewing popular culture so you don't have to Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:48:01 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 No Country For Boring Oscars – Oscar Ratings Tank http://popcritics.com/2008/02/25/no-country-for-boring-oscars-oscar-ratings-tank http://popcritics.com/2008/02/25/no-country-for-boring-oscars-oscar-ratings-tank#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:51:25 +0000 Jason http://www.popcritics.com/2008/02/no-country-for-boring-oscars-oscar-ratings-tank/
Javier Bardem Wins Best Actor
Those of us who watch the Oscars every year know that last night’s 80th Annual telecast was far from the worst we’d ever seen. However, just as we’ve mentioned in other articles, there did seem to be something missing. No Country For Old was the favorite and ended up winning Best Picture. The stars were all there. Jon Stewart was funny. The show was classy…but still…it seemed like even the stars didn’t care as much.

Apparently the folks at home didn’t care as much either. Nielsen Media Research says preliminary ratings for the 80th annual Academy Awards telecast are 14 percent lower than the least-watched ceremony ever. The show had a 21.9 rating and 33 share. They also said Monday that overnight ratings are also 21 percent lower than last year when The Departed was named Best Picture.

Best Actress WinnerThe least-watched Oscars ceremony ever was in 2003. There were still 33 million viewers which isn’t that bad for a television program, but it doesn’t live up to the standards of Oscar which is usually the second most watched show of the year behind the Super Bowl.

I think the writer’s strike had a bigger effect on the show than we thought. We know that the strike caused the start of the production on the show to be postponed so maybe it wasn’t as good as it could have been. Maybe the jokes could have been funnier if they had had more time to write more. Perhaps the opening could have been more spectacular and more people would have stayed tuned in…

In the end, however, it’s really probably about the movies. Most people haven’t seen these movies, and may never see these movies. Those of us who love movies understand how good the nominees were this year and how lucky we were to have films like No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Michael Clayton, Atonement, and Juno nominated for Best Picture.

No Country For Old Men
The average television viewer, however, probably doesn’t know much about any of these movies or any of the people in them. Juno has only made $130M and that’s as much as the other four nominees combined. There simply wasn’t anything to draw an audience. There wasn’t a Forrest Gump or Titanic that people could cheer on to victory. Without a personal emotional investment, most people either found something else to do or found something else on TV.

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