Billy Crystal-Hosted Oscars Watched By 39.3 Million, Up From Last Year
Nikki Finke: Live-Snarking The Oscars
It’s amazing how much TV viewers care about a little show of nipple. At least that seems to explain why Jennifer Lopez’s joint appearance with Cameron Diaz to present the award for Best Costume Design and Makeup was the most-viewed moment among TiVo DVR users who watched last night’s Oscars live or up to 12 hours after it aired. Their appearance had 14.1% more viewings than the average for the rest of the show, TiVo says based on data from 300,000 of its customers. The company counts the number of times a moment is played or re-played — so it could be inflated by multiple viewings on a few TV sets. Messages indicating that Lopez’s dress revealed more than viewers commonly see in primetime spread through Twitter and other social networks immediately after her appearance. The second-most-watched moment, at 13.5% above average, came nearly an hour later when Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow presented the award for Best Documentary. Meryl Streep’s victory as Best Actress was close behind, with 13.3% more viewings than average. As for the least-watched moments, they were the acceptance speeches for Sound Mixing (9.8% below average), Original Score (-8.2%), and Visual Effects (-7.3%).


Does anyone know who botched the audio for THE ENTIRE 4 HOUR SHOW last night? How hard is it to fail with such astounding measure? Was the entire show filled with feedback from Billy Crystal’s hearing aid? One has to assume that whoever it was that blew it– had some sort of background in audio– but to allow THE ENTIRE 4 HOURS to pass without any sort of correction is simply astounding. Even more crazy is that they aren’t being called out for the embarrassing debacle at this late stage. Well, as someone awful once said: “You’re doing a helluva job Brownie!!”.
It’s too bad that for so many actresses it ultimately becomes all about the dress and the perfume and clothing lines. It’s as though they need to occasionally act to keep their product endorsements and licensing deals from expiring. Is Gwyneth still an actress or just a walking lifestyle magazine? I wish we were talking about j Lo because she had done something interesting as an actress this year, not because she may or may not have been pushing the envelope with a little nipple action.
Good point, it should be embarrassing to involve yourself in such a “prestigious event” when said presenter has not a single accolade to her name. It reeks of self promotion and has watered down the show quite a bit. The following people have no business giving out awards…J.Lo, Cameron Diaz, Ben Stiller, Bradley Cooper(!), Maya Rudolph, Milla Jovovich, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell or Zach Galifinakis.
You forgot to list “Any Kardashian” but I guess that goes without saying?
Agreed on (most) of those people not having any business at the Oscars, esp JLo and Cameron Diaz.
Glad Jennifer Anniston wasn’t up there though.
They should dispense with decorum and just do next years show topless.
Well I know who DIDN’T deserve an award for audio mixing last night: whomever was running the soundboard. I thought it was my friend’s speakers that were buzzing because they are on the cheap side, but when I got home and tried to catch the last few minutes of the show, same buzz on my state of the art surround sound system.
Oddly enough, I read in some of the forums that viewers who have satellite providers like Dish and DirecTV didn’t have any buzzing. I don’t know if it was feedback, or just a bad patch cord, but it was like amateur hour last night at the Oscars.
Omg! Exactly! The band was way too loud. The levels were way off. It was appalling.
Glad someone mentioned the mix. We struggled to hear what were probably clever lyrics on Billy Crystal’s song about the nominated films, but for most of it he was drowned out by the music. Really? How hard is it to do a sound check listening through TV speakers and make sure the voice is out front? These people are professionals???
It is true, dish network coverage did not have the buzzing.