Oscar audience DOWN from last year...

by 2 million viewers. Looks like another case of those "early exit polls" that showed one thing but the final results show another. The AP reports that:

The drop in total viewership was an indication that this year's Oscar ceremony was more popular in the big cities than rural areas, more so than an average Academy Awards, said Larry Hyams, vice president of audience analysis and research for ABC.

Oscar ratings were up from last year among viewers aged 18 to 34 — a prime target for the advertisers who pay millions of dollars for time on what is traditionally the year's highest-rated program after the Super Bowl.

Hyams attributed the boost in young viewership to Rock.

So, 41 million viewers. In context, that means this year was lower than last year - which was no banner year for ratings. In fact it's not all that much better than 2002, which at the time was an all-time low. So my original prediction that it would be "one of the lowest rated" stands.

Looks like the "hip" metropolitans in the big markets (mostly in Blue States) watched in droves, but the rest of America (mostly Red states) opted out. Another indication of a culture schism in the nation?

Posted by: Gary at 09:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 219 words, total size 2 kb.