Sunday 02/27/11 Final Broadcast Ratings

Oscar's Red Carpet Live (7pm, 27 minutes)
- 12.141 million viewers
- 7.5/14 HH
- 2.7/9 A18-49

Oscar's Red Carpet Live (7:27pm, 33 minutes)
- 16.033 million viewers
- 9.8/17 HH
- 3.9/12 A18-49

Oscar's Red Carpet Live (8pm, 30 minutes)
- 26.605 million viewers
- 15.5/25 HH
- 7.3/20 A18-49

83rd Academy Awards (8:30pm, 182 minutes)
- 37.919 million viewers
- 21.2/33 HH
- 11.8/30 A18-49

60 Minutes (R)
- 8.395 million viewers
- 5.4/9 HH
- 1.2/3 A18-49

The Amazing Race
- 7.676 million viewers
- 4.3/7 HH
- 2.1/5 A18-49

Undercover Boss (R)
- 5.599 million viewers
- 2.5/5 HH
- 1.5/4 A18-49

CSI: Miami
- 8.240 million viewers
- 5.2/9 HH
- 2.0/5 A18-49

Dateline (R)
- 4.749 million viewers
- 3.0/5 HH
- 0.8/2 A18-49

Minute to Win It (R, 8pm, 63 minutes)
- 2.671 million viewers
- 1.6/2 HH
- 0.7/2 A18-49

Minute to Win It (R, 9:03pm, 63 minutes)
- 3.706 million viewers
- 2.2/3 HH
- 1.2/3 A18-49

Minute to Win It (R, 10:06pm, 62 minutes)
- 2.469 million viewers
- 1.5/3 HH
- 0.8/2 A18-49

The Simpsons (R, 7pm, 29 minutes)
- 4.030 million viewers
- 2.3/4 HH
- 1.7/6 A18-49

American Dad (R)
- 3.462 million viewers
- 2.0/3 HH
- 1.6/5 A18-49

The Simpsons (R, 7:59pm, 32 minutes)
- 4.850 million viewers
- 2.7/4 HH
- 2.2/6 A18-49

Bob's Burgers (R, 29 minutes)
- 3.808 million viewers
- 2.1/3 HH
- 1.8/4 A18-49

Family Guy (R, 60 minutes)
- 4.322 million viewers
- 2.6/4 HH
- 2.0/5 A18-49

Travis Yanan Goes to the Movies - Oscars Predictions

First off... highest rated Oscar telecast in years (should the whole ABC thing get worked out in NY). Avatar is nominated for 9 categories. And, well, when Titanic, then champion of the popular / box office ticket vote, was up for its awards, Oscar hit something like 55 million viewers. And, in unadjusted box office, Avatar is bigger than Titanic, not to mention appealing to viewers Oscar doesn't usually reach so well: men. I see no reason Oscar shouldn't sail past 40 million viewers this year (especially with this year's trend of big award show ratings). Not to mention the bigger Best Picture field with other crowd pleasers like Up and The Blind Side.

Now, my "official" predictions... mostly so I have some record, somewhere, of what my ballot is at the viewing party I'm attending. Which I have to head off to, so no time for explanations except that I have not seen any of the short subject films and many of the technical categories are based on guild award winners. As for Best Picture... well... that's the big question of the evening, isn't it? Hurt Locker or Avatar? For the record, I loved The Hurt Locker and HOPE it wins... but I have serious doubts and thus put my money elsewhere.

Best Picture: Avatar

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

Best Actress: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglorious Basterds

Best Supporting Actor: Mo'nique, Precious

Best Animated Feature Film: Up

Best Foreign Film: The White Ribbon

Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds

Best Adapted Screenplay: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air

Best Documentary Feature: The Cove

Best Original Score: Up

Best Original Song: "The Weary Kind," Crazy Heart

Best Film Editing: The Hurt Locker

Best Cinematography: Avatar

Best Costume Design: The Young Victoria

Best Art Direction: Avatar

Best Makeup: Star Trek

Best Visual Effects: Avatar

Best Documentary Short Subject: China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province

Best Short Film, Animated: A Matter of Loaf and Death

Best Short Film, Live Action: The Door

Best Sound Editing: Avatar

Best Sound Mixing: The Hurt Locker

Oscars

I gotta admit, I just can't get it up for this year's Oscars.  I'm not even bothering with "predictions" (most categories are already locks anyway).  Blah.

Snooze

Well, the Oscars have managed to successfully protest their relevancy with today's ho-hum nominations. Don't get me wrong, I loved both Milk and Slumdog Millionaire. But the absence of both/either of The Dark Knight and WALL•E in the Best Picture category shows just how out of touch the Academy is. Yes, yes, both scored multiple nominations elsewhere (with Heath Ledger getting his lock nomination as Supporting Actor). Still. This is a very disappointing development. And, of course, the ratings will suffer.

Dear Oscar

Dear Oscar,

Did you see the opening day box office of The Dark Knight?

Your ratings are floundering because you keep nominating movies for Best Picture that, at best, are surprise indie hits (last year's Juno was the biggest box office draw at a bit above $100 million... same story for the prior year's pool with The Departed). Your relevance is floundering.

Please nominate The Dark Knight (and, obviously, Heath Ledger). For your own sake. Not just to attract more viewers - which it would do - but because the movie is legitimately superb and thus worthy.

TY,

TY

PS - Also feel free to nominate Robert Downey, Jr. for his performance in Iron Man.

A Night of WTF

I'm pleasantly surprised by this year's Oscars! Not only was Jon Stewart hilarious (no matter what Nikki Finke thinks), but there were some MAJOR shockers in the awards!

I have to complain for a half-second about that, though. What's the point in following the guild awards if the Oscars don't remotely resemble them? I know the Academy has slightly different membership (as in not every member of each guild is a member of AMPAS, so the results are often different even in the technical categories)... but am I mistaken in thinking that Oscar voting is similar to Emmy voting, where your specialty determines which categories you can vote in?

Anyway, to highlight this... god bless Marion Cotillard and Tilda Swinton for their wins (BOTH DESERVED!) but every single acting award went to Julie Christie and Cate Blanchett. So... yay, but "huh??" And while I hated Transformers and the idea of it getting three Oscars hurt me (it wound up with none, so, again, YAY), if the Visual Effects Society gives you its award, shouldn't the Oscars follow suit? Or if, say, the VES DOESN'T NOMINATE YOU, how do you wind up with the Oscar (cough, Golden Compass)? Meanwhile, there are multiple Sound guilds, but the confusing thing for me was that Transformers won awards for editing and mixing from one guild, and the other went with No Country for editing and Bourne for mixing (Bourne won both Oscars). Does not compute. And the list goes on.

So, yeah. While I was THRILLED with some of the winners that I didn't pick, I wound up with only 13/24 right (12/21 if you play without the short subject categories as some do). Which, for me, is down right embarrassing. Well, maybe next year I'll beat the 21 I got right in 2006.

Meanwhile, awkward moment of the night one... WTF with Amy Adams' performance of "Happy Working Song"? Not only did she change into an outfit far uglier than what she wore to the ceremony (she later presented, and you can see her on red carpet photoblogs) and an outfit that didn't at all recall the outfit she was wearing during the movie when the number happened... but she sang alone, on stage, with nothing and no one behind her. The rest of the musical numbers tried to recreate the atmosphere of the scene in the film, so I understand the show not setting loose a number of pigeons, rats, and cockroaches during Amy's performance... but WTF!? Tangent: gotta love Kristin Chenoweth.

Awkward moment of the night two... poor Markéta Irglová. The producers cut the mike after Glen Hansard does his thank yours when "Falling Slowly" won as she tries to talk. At least the show semi-corrected itself after the commercial break by bringing her out. Ugh, stupidity.

Oscar Predix

Lead Actor - Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood)
Supporting Actor - Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)
Lead Actress - Julie Christie (Away From Her)
Supporting Actress - Cate Blanchett (I'm Not There)
Animated Feature - Ratatouille
Art Direction - There Will Be Blood
Cinematography - No Country for Old Men
Costume Design - Sweeney Todd
Directing - Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men)
Documentary Feature - No End in Sight
Film Editing - The Bourne Ultimatum
Foreign Language Film - The Counterfeiters
Makeup - La Vie en Rose
Original Score - Atonement
Original Song - Falling Slowly (Once)
Best Picture - No Country for Old Men
Sound Editing - Transformers
Sound Mixing - Transformers
Visual Effects - Transformers
Adapted Screenplay - No Country for Old Men
Original Screenplay - Juno

The above is what I think is going to win, and most of the categories I'm pretty certain of (especially the majors, even if I'd have voted for Ellen Page or Marion Cotillard over Julie Christie for Lead Actress and for Tilda Swinton or Amy Ryan over Cate Blanchett for Supporting Actress).

As for the technical categories... I do have a couple of question mark. Specifically Art Direction, I'm really torn between There Will Be Blood, Sweeney Todd, and Atonement, but I think that There Will Be Blood will get its lone technical award there. Cinematography might go to Atonement for its beach scene. Film Editing could go to No Country for Old Men (and if it does, it's really a shoe-in for Best Picture). Sound Editing might go to No Country for Old Men, and Sound Mixing might go to The Bourne Ultimatum, both over Transformers. And if Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End sneaks away with La Vie en Rose's makeup Oscar I will actually be pretty ticked.

And, finally, we come to the short subject categories... I haven't seen any of the shorts, so these are pretty much just stabs in the dark.

Animated Short - Peter & the Wolf
Documentary Short - Sari's Mother
Live-action Short - The Tonto Woman

I won't have my computer with me during the Oscars, but I'll update with my tally out of the possible 24 points at the end of the evening...

Oh, Oscar

Oh, my, something to distract me from the strike! And what a something!

Loving that the Oscar nominations fell head over feet for the deserving Michael Clayton, which managed to be completely ignored by the Golden Globes (blech, anyway) and by the American public, thanks to an odd release date and possibly the least engaging title ever for what turns out to be an incredibly engaging movie.

Also, take a look at this:

Sound Mixing: The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country for Old Men, Ratatouille, 3:10 to Yuma, Transformers.
Sound Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country for Old Men, Ratatouille, There Will Be Blood, Transformers.
And you wonder why people get the categories confused (let alone know what either job is)!?

Cheers:
- Juno goes into the Oscars as the biggest box office draw of the Best Picture nominees. Gotta love the division of/schism between art and commerce.
- Despite being ignored elsewhere, Once is nominated in the original song category for "Falling Slowly" (swoon).
- Hopefully Amy Adams will perform some of the three nominated songs from Enchanted. Would love to see the special, Oscar-telecast staged version of "That's How You Know".
- Lots of love for Rataloutille all over the place (except it's relegated to Best Animated Feature, and can't crack into the Best Picture race).

Jeers:
- Double nominee Cate Blanchette gets Best Lead Actress love for Elizabeth II, a role she won the Oscar with years ago, but for a far worse film (and it wasn't really adding that much to the previous performance). I'm fine with her nomination for Best Supporting Actress in I'm Not There... but spread the love! The only nominations E2 should've gotten where in the artsy technical categories (which it would deserve, completely, since it was a beautiful-to-behold film). Despite my issues with the second half of Atonement, I'm surprised to see its two leads (James McEvoy and, especially, Keira Knightley) shut out. Or, even better, how about a nomination for the, er, enchanting Amy Adams?
- Surf's Up in the animated feature category... what of The Simpsons Movie? At least it makes it easier to only have to try and decide between two films: Ratatouille and Persepolis.
- A nomination for Norbit!? NORBIT is an Oscar-nominated film (for Make-up)!?!?!?
- Only one nomination for Charlie Wilson's War? This was a fantastic film. Sorkin doing what Sorkin does best. At least they got the nomination right... Phillip Seymour Hoffman stole every scene he was in.