Hot Buttered Death
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Tuesday, March 25, 2003  

Oscars: the show might've been OK in the end, but the ratings sucked.America's ABC television network recorded the lowest percentage of households watching the Oscars in the event's 50-year history of being broadcast live.
The number of viewers was down about 21 per cent on last year.
The three-and-a-half hour show attracted an average of 33.05 million viewers, compared to 41.8 million for the 2002 show which dragged on for a record 4.5 hours, said Larry Hyams of ABC's research department.
"This is the lowest household viewing rate for the Oscars since the 1950s and it is due to the war in Iraq which dramatically changed people's viewing habits on Oscars night," he said.

Actually, technically it's the lowest rate since 1974 when the Nielsen ratings were recorded for the first time. See the last item on this page; if I'm reading that correctly, I presume it means there could've been less than 33 million people watching the event in some years prior to that, but we don't have ratings figures for then. So to say this is the lowest-rated Oscars ever may not be actually correct.

posted by James Russell | 1:00 PM


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