Oscar quote of the day - From the Toronto Star: “Never before have the nominees for the best picture Academy Award been so exclusively devoted to liberal dreams, liberal nightmares.” Watch for this headline on Drudge tomorrow morning: “Acadamy Awards suffer lowest ratings ever.”
Update – Slate stole my line: “Is anyone going to watch this ceremony? Jon Stewart is a niche performer. The nominated movies are really small-scale; there's no big-ticket middlebrow picture like Titanic or Forrest Gump. I can already envision the 32-point, all-caps Drudge Report headline on Monday decrying the low ratings.”
Extra – Mark at Decision 08 has the first annual Academy Awards spectacular. Pudding will be served.
Follow-up - Second worst ratings ever: "The Academy Awards were down 10 percent from last year's ceremony, based on preliminary Nielsen Media Research ratings from the nation's 55 biggest markets. If the full national ratings follow suit later Monday, this year's ceremony will likely be the second least-watched Oscars telecast behind 2003, when "Chicago" won best picture."
6 comments:
Who cares about the Oscars. Did you see this headline:
Oscars Bank on 'Brokeback' to Grab Viewers
Well, if they are banking on it, I smell a Chapter 13 in the morning. They're going to wish they knew how to quit hyping these movie as if it was popular.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060305/ap_en_mo/oscars_12
So, when are the Oscars?
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/06/D8G663F80.html
"ABC is in for a "Crash" landing in the Oscar ratings.
The Academy Awards were down 10 percent from last year's ceremony, based on preliminary Nielsen Media Research ratings from the nation's 55 biggest markets. If the full national ratings follow suit later Monday, this year's ceremony will likely be the second least-watched Oscars telecast behind 2003, when "Chicago" won best picture."
On Drudge
The Oscars' Nielsen ratings are down, down, down. So are the Golden Globes'. And the Grammys'. And the Super Bowl's. And the World Series'. And the Olympics'. And the Final Four's. And news telecasts. And election coverage. And the highwater level for virtually all entertainment programs, of all types, on all channels, across the board. New Year's Eve countdowns, The Today Show, The Tonight Show, 60 Minutes, Monday Night Football, The Simpsons, Wheel of Fortune, everything.
Some cynics may say that this wholesale collapse is the obvious and unavoidable result of the changes in how consumers access television. Others darkly hint that the Nielsen ratings have always been a very inexact science. And that it's likely that the real "problem" for today's shows is that the old "record" ratings were once artificially inflated by faulty methodology.
I reject these heresies! There is only one sensible interpretation: sports and entertainment are no longer popular with the American populace.
I dearly look forward to the next 5,000 "lowest ratings ever!" reports in the media.
Do you know why baseball's ratings are way, way down? Steroids.
I'm shocked, SHOCKED that Barry Bonds is being accused of using steroids in that saintly, American game!
"Long-popular telecast remains so" isn't a very sexy headline. And the whole "gay cowboy/George Clooney/Daily Show/Bush haters" Oscars was an irresistable punchtoy for the conservative noisemakers. And wish fulfillment is more fun than just about anything in this world.
Apparently all of that is far more relevant than this math equation:
M*A*S*H > Cheers > Seinfeld > Friends > whatever's coming next
As for baseball, naturally I realize this is more a running joke of yours than an actual obsession. If I was a basketball fan, you'd be crowing about the NBA Finals ratings instead. But a savvy analyst would ask themselves, "Why do people care so much more about Bonds or Palmeiro using steroids than they do about any player in any other sport?" Or, "Why do people nurture such strong feelings about baseball's records and statistics, when they couldn't even tell you (for example) who has the most touchdowns, let alone how many?" The answers don't boost the anti-baseball case.
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