Kathryn Bigelow, Barbra Streisand
The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony were watched by an estimated 41.3 million people in the United States, up 14 percent from last year according to the Nielsen Co. The Hurt Locker's victory over Avatar was seen by more people — in case there were 41.3 million still up by then — than any other Oscarcast since Million Dollar Baby took the Best Picture Oscar in early 2005.
There have been all sorts of explanations for this, among them "a trend" — in 2010 people have suddenly decided they want a "communal experience" in front of their TV sets — that has led to higher ratings for other major televised events this year, from the Golden Globes to the Miss America pageant, from the Tonys to the Super Bowl.
Others say it's because this year's Oscar lineup featured a number of major box-office attractions, including potential best picture winners Avatar and Inglourious Basterds. The more successful the movies in contention, the bigger the Oscar telecast audience according to common wisdom, which always points out to a record viewership of 57.2 million when James Cameron's Titanic won in 1998.
Others yet claim that Twitter and Facebook and Oscar forums and chatrooms have made the ceremony more Internet friendly, as people will tweet about how boring some speech was or how ugly this or that actress looked.
Someone somewhere is saying that the ratings increase was all due to the presence of Zac Efron, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, and Miley Cyrus.
Oscar's smallest audience in the last 25 years took place in 2008, when an average of 31.7 million people watched the ceremony the night No Country for Old Men won Best Picture.
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Congratulation to u & all z film actors!
Every year some long time Academy Award viewers drop off and I will be there after more then 25 years. I am extemely disappointed that the Academy bypassed Meryl Streep's performance once again. It seems that the people which make of the Academy are now more interested in popularity and celebrity more then actual acting skills. Voting for someone because they hold a lot of power in your industry and they may later give you a job over voting for someone for their job performance is just plain wrong. Academy members shame on you and SAYONARA !