how many people watch the oscars?

[yoMAMA]

billions? [as hollywood claims?]///

right....just about 960 million short......

:rolleyes:

http://newyorker.com/talk/content/index.ssf?050228ta_talk_radosh

[Faithless]

I'd rather read about it, later. The whole show is just boring.

Now, if any of the people mentioned in that AMWD interview with Greg Pak (http://www.asianmediawatchdog.com/gregpak/gregpak.html) were up for serious contention, I'd watch.

[Banana]

I'll watch it just to see what Chris Rock has to say.

Break out the insults, Chris!

[Faithless]

I'll watch it just to see what Chris Rock has to say.

Break out the insults, Chris!
Well, I think I heard a news clip that quoted him as saying that he wouldn't be saying bad stuff if his mom was in the audience, which she is supposed to be.

I also understand that he was joking about toking-up before going on. :frown:

[yoMAMA]

Well, I think I heard a news clip that quoted him as saying that he wouldn't be saying bad stuff if his mom was in the audience, which she is supposed to be.

I also understand that he was joking about toking-up before going on. :frown:

he also said that he's gonna say something if jamie foxx doesn't get the hardware.

:biggrin:

[Banana]

Bah, I'm not going to bother with it then. The only reason to watch is because Rock might go insane and bitch a few Hollywood morons out.

[Faithless]

Bah, I'm not going to bother with it then. The only reason to watch is because Rock might go insane and bitch a few Hollywood morons out.
I'm hoping to hear some good jokes about Hollywood or some shout-outs to Spike or something.

[Deadpool]

No. Watching Hollywood pat itself in the back is a bit boring to me.

[nonamerasian]

I decided to watch for Rock.

I didn't know how little hosts speak.

[kasia]

i drove by on the way to target. lots of huge limos and cameras.

[nola]

Chris Rock: "Oprah is so rich, I saw John Kerry proposing to her backstage". Hehe.

[yoMAMA]

Chris Rock: "Oprah is so rich, I saw John Kerry proposing to her backstage". Hehe.

LOL :tongue:

the Gap/banana analogy with Iraq was pretty funny......

:biggrin:

[Faithless]

Now this would have been worth seeing --

ABC execs axe Robin Williams skit (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds19550.html)
Sunday, February 27 2005, 21:09 GMT -- by James Welsh

Executives at American TV network ABC have forced Robin Williams to axe a song poking fun at anti-gay political pressure group "Focus on the Family" from his time on stage at the Oscars tonight.

The group, headed by James C. Dobson, went on record last month as saying that cartoon characters including SpongeBob SquarePants were "promoting homosexuality" in America. The New York Times reported late Sunday that Williams had planned to use his minute on stage singing a satirical gospel-esque song about Dobson's claims - but that ABC's broadcast standards unit wanted 11 out of 36 lines of the song cut or rewritten.

Williams had planned, according to the Times, to sing the song in the voice of a preacher as if he were identifying, fire-and-brimstone style, other threats to American society. Lines such as "Pinocchio's had his nose done! / Sleeping Beauty is popping pills" were, however, deemed too strong for the primetime broadcast.

[Irezumi Kiss]

He still poked some good fun about the whole gay cartoon stuff during his Best Animated Film stint.

It was cool, the whole shebang. Not "great," but cooler than I thought it would be. Best shit was seeing my man Prince and peeping that Vin Diesel joint with Sidney Lumet for later this year! Jaime and Morgan! Oprah! Sandra Oh! Salma! Loved the way we represented beautiful that night!

[SunWuKong]

i didn't even know this was on. i was doing chores and then browsing the web reading D&D stuff.

[TB4000]

Last night was an ok show, could've been better...they made certain to hit that black demographic with Rock, Beyonce and P. Diddy presenting to boot. Though Rock was pretty censored, he had some great jabs at Dubya, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek on stage together("our next four presenters"), and his trip to the Magic Johnson theatres where he interviewed people about movies they had seen this year....hilarious.

[kpih]

Am I reading too much into this? "The drop in total viewership was an indication that this year's Oscar ceremony was more popular in the big cities than rural areas"...

'Rural Areas'? Meaning rednecks don't like seeing Chris Rock hosting? The Urban (Black) vs. Rural (Redneck) dichotomy?

Academy Awards TV Audience Down 2 Million
Monday February 28 8:16 PM ET

With comedian Chris Rock, the Academy Awards succeeded in its effort to find a younger audience but perhaps at the expense of the country as a whole.

A total of 41.5 million viewers tuned in Sunday to watch "Million Dollar Baby" take the Oscar for best picture. That's down 2 million from last year's show, which honored "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," according to Nielsen Media Research.

ABC undoubtedly hoped for better, after preliminary figures released earlier Monday from the top 56 markets were the strongest they were in five years.

The drop in total viewership was an indication that this year's Oscar ceremony was more popular in the big cities than rural areas, more so than an average Academy Awards, said Larry Hyams, vice president of audience analysis and research for ABC.

Oscar ratings were up from last year among viewers aged 18 to 34 a prime target for the advertisers who pay millions of dollars for time on what is traditionally the year's highest-rated program after the Super Bowl.

Hyams attributed the boost in young viewership to Rock.

"The academy made a concerted effort to go in a different direction and try to appeal to a younger audience with the Academy Awards, and it appears they have succeeded," he said.

It was the 12th time since 1990 that the Academy Awards drew an audience of between 40 and 46 million people, according to Nielsen. The peak during that stretch was the "Titanic" year of 1998 with 55.2 million, and the low point was 33 million in 2003, when "Chicago" won.

Rock said backstage after the Oscars that he hoped to do it again, although "who knows if they would want me again."

He attracted plenty of pre-Oscars publicity, including speculation about whether he would make jokes at the expense of President Bush (he did) or test ABC censors with curse words (he didn't).

"Put it this way, I don't curse in front of my mother," Rock said. "And my mother was front and center, you know, right in my view. So I could never curse in front of Rose Rock, so why would I do it on television?"

[Grasshopper]

If they wanted a bigger audience all they had to do is get a better host than this low class Chris Rock clown and nominate "Passion of the Christ" and Mel Gibson.

Then they could build controversy over the top movie of the year with all the anxieties about anti-semitism, Jewish Hollywood power and Mel's "secret agenda". :rolleyes:

Last night was an ok show, could've been better...they made certain to hit that black demographic with Rock, Beyonce and P. Diddy presenting to boot. Though Rock was pretty censored, he had some great jabs at Dubya, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek on stage together("our next four presenters"), and his trip to the Magic Johnson theatres where he interviewed people about movies they had seen this year....hilarious.

Notice he didn't have the balls to throw any jabs at any black
celebs. He's afraid his brothers in the 'hood will call him an uncle tom.

According to the Howard Stern show Artie told Howard that Nick DiPaolo wrote some stuff for Rock and one of his intros for Halle Berry was ''This actress has lost more men than the Iraqi Army...'' . :biggrin:

Howard said that would have been hilarious.

[gau dog]

Only watched parts of it. Not that interesting.

[Faithless]

Final numbers for Oscar are in -- ratings down again.

But I don't think you can blame the decline of the ratings based on movie selection like the article below. I think it would have been more dull to have Lassie and Benji and Ma Kettle clips shown during the show.

To me -- the presentation is just stuffy. And it's an awards show -- and they're all boring, really.

In someways, the Academy Awards are just a way for people to publically brag on themselves.

They ought to run these movie category awards like they run the sports awards at the end of the year -- via an association of hundreds of professional writers -- and then just submit the announcement of their rankings.

In this era of mind-what-you-say, the Chris Rocks of the world will never make the Oscars exciting to watch. I would have watched it if he could have really run his "Bush lied" bit. Instead, he was too tame, and the audience just dull.

Oscars: Ratings Failed To Rock Due To Liberal Leanings Of Hollywood (http://www.bayoubuzz.com/articles.aspx?aid=3399)

Politics * Author: Jeff Crouere | 3/1/2005

Well the final numbers are now in and the much ballyhooed 2005 Oscars were a ratings disappointment. The ratings were down 6% nationally from last year, although they were higher in major cities and among the 18-34 year olds. With mainstream and rural America, the Oscars must seem to be somewhat unrepresentative of their values and interests. The Academy Awards celebrate Hollywood and the leftist culture of movie stars and directors. How many movies does Hollywood make for those in America with conservative beliefs? Not many.

Just look at this year’s Oscars for an idea of how Hollywood thinks. A fantastic movie which depicts the final hours of the life of Jesus Christ was largely ignored; however one that advocates euthanasia, “Million Dollar Baby”, wins four awards.

The host of the show, Chris Rock, bashed President Bush on occasion, but at least he didn’t have to be bleeped. Rock was supposed to appeal to a larger audience this year, but failed in his mission to improve the rather weak ratings. His performance as host was lame and his jokes uneven and many times unfunny.

Many of the presenters, such as Robin Williams and Tim Robbins, were devout liberals. At the Oscars, there was no conservative counter-balance because it doesn’t exist in Hollywood. Movies liked by those millions of Americans in the “red states” are either not being made anymore or being ignored by the Oscars.

So, the ratings decline will continue no matter who the Academy invites to host the show. The only way the program will be more interesting to mainstream America is for Hollywood to start making more family oriented films that don’t tout the liberal agenda. With Hollywood, being in the forefront of the liberal movement in this country today, don’t expect those changes to take place anytime soon.

[s1eve]

i thought last years oscars with the lotr clean sweep was great to watch and the mood was very festive. this year, i missed the live coverage and couldn't be bothered watching the delayed coverage. there just wasn't anything to get excited about. plus, i noticed hardly anyone particapted in the yw prediction contest.

also there was major talk about what wasn't said at the oscars. bloody ABC beamed the event to the world with a 5 second delay!

[thaite]

i hope next year that Triumph the Insult Comic Dog will host. That I would watch.

[Faithless]

I agree, girl. Come to YW and get yo karma for the article! :biggrin:

Representin At the Oscars (http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog/archives/2005/03/representin_at.html)

March 01, 2005

It was a pretty good night for people of color at the Academy Awards. Chris Rock got to say the names of lots of black people who didn't even go on stage --Denzel, Oprah-- and Morgan Freeman and Jamie Foxx swept up the little statuettes.

Catalina Sandino Moreno was up for best actress for "Maria Full of Grace" --even though she spoke in Spanish for most of the film and Hollywood tends not to notice subtitled actors.

Plus, the beautiful song Al Otro Lado Del Rio, from Motorcycle Diaries, won. (Antonio Banderas' rendition was awful --listen to the real recording which is so gentle it breaks your heart.) Selma Hayek pointed out it was the first song in Spanish to be nominated, ever.

But my Asian faces, where were they?

How long til a song in Hindi, or Mandarin, or Thai, do you think?

There WERE some Asians and Asian Americans honored in the glitz fest, mostly in the background. But at Hyphen we put Asians in the spotlight, so here's my list of those who made us proud --feel free to add to it.

Sandra Oh. Stunning in red, she glowed --even though she wasn't up for an award and Sideways only won for its screenplay. Plus, she was included in all of the red carpet fashion reviews and got some screen time. And ABC ran several ads for her new show, "Grey's Anatomy."

Zhang Ziyi. She was a presenter with Jake Gyllenhaal (why? very weird pair) and spoke the most english I've ever heard her utter. Which was about 10 words. But she's gorgeous.

Zhao Xiaoding. Nominated for cinematography for "House of Flying Daggers." I don't even know if he was there, and he didn't win anyway. But hey, keeping us on the map.

The rest of the this list are all the people who didn't even get to go on stage, --with the new award-in-the-aisle system the winners barely left their seats. tacky. anyway...

Sejong Park. Nominated for his animated short film, "Birthday Boy" about a Korean kid playing war as his dad fights.

Ashvin Kumar. Nominated for his short film, "Little Terrorist" about a Pakistani boy who loses his ball in a minefield at the Indian border. And he looked really cool.

Byambasuren Davaa. A Mongolian filmmaker nominated for her documentary film "The Story of the Weeping Camel" that everyone says should've won. She's strikingly pretty, too.

Takuo Miyagishima. A really nice looking old Japanese guy, who won the Gordon E. Sawyer award for lifetime achievement --he's designed a bunch of lenses and an eyepiece leveler (whatever that is), in his many years at Panavision. (He's one of the people who got his award the night before from Scarlett Johannson and was relegated to the balcony (the BALCONY!) during the show.)

Well, that's all I spotted (I did fast-foward through it --thanks Tivo!). A pretty short list. Let's do better next year, team.

Meanwhile, go watch the films, buy the eyepiece leveler, or support your starving actor friend lunch.

[TB4000]

Notice he didn't have the balls to throw any jabs at any black
celebs. He's afraid his brothers in the 'hood will call him an uncle tom.


Howard said that would have been hilarious.

He did insult Halle by mentioning Catwoman 2, and Diddy by talking about the Source awards shooting...he didn't really take any punches at the nominees, period.

[Faithless]

He did insult Halle by mentioning Catwoman 2, and Diddy by talking about the Source awards shooting...he didn't really take any punches at the nominees, period.
He did recognize Jay Z in the audience.

I think that aspect was cool -- giving props to people in the audience, when generally they wouldn't get a mention with any other host.

[deez nuts]

3+ hours of watching celebrities pat each other on the back for just making or being in a movie? it's a waste of time. the only reason i remotely care about who won what is cuz of the oscar pool at work.

same goes for the grammies, etc etc. the only thing remotely worth watching or attending is the adult video news awards.

it's funny how the world works. people can get so much attention for just making or being in a movie meanwhile the october 6th nobel prize ceremony at harvard univeristy's sanders theater gets almost no attention. at the end of 2005, people will likely know and remember who won best actor in 2005 rather than who won the nobel prize in medicine in 2005. i probably sure as hell will remember jamie foxx over dr. <so and so>.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

The only reason I'd watch an awards show is to be exposed to new stuff I'd never be able to find out about on my own. The Oscars is just a waste of time, a four-hour long commercial for an industry and stars who have quite enough of a brand image built up.

[Shuriken]

I liked the award show's segment of Chris Rock's visit to the Magic Johnson Theatres here in L.A. and his interviews with the theatre's largely black clientel. It was a refreshing reminder of the Oscars' disavowal of the exploitation fare that is Hollywood's bread and butter (more people had seen White Chicks — and liked it! — than had seen Sideways) and the relative paucity of people of color in its ceremony.

Rock alone made the Oscars worth watching — even if you don't consider yourself a buff (I'm a buff).

[SunWuKong]

i thought White Chicks was funny...

[kimpossible]

We didn't even realize it was on.

[yoMAMA]

I liked the award show's segment of Chris Rock's visit to the Magic Johnson Theatres here in L.A. and his interviews with the theatre's largely black clientel. It was a refreshing reminder of the Oscars' disavowal of the exploitation fare that is Hollywood's bread and butter (more people had seen White Chicks — and liked it! — than had seen Sideways) and the relative paucity of people of color in its ceremony.

Rock alone made the Oscars worth watching — even if you don't consider yourself a buff (I'm a buff).

I also loved the way he made fun of hollywood......and made those self worshipping idiots like sean penn look foolish.....




"tobey mcguire, now that's just a boy in tights".

:tongue:

[deez nuts]

oscars = glorified overhyped prom for the celebrities.

[Grasshopper]

We didn't even realize it was on.

"We"?

Is that the royal "we", like -

- "We were not amused by this meager attempt at entertainment intended for the unwashed rabble." :eek:

[kimpossible]

^No. I don't live alone.

But it does sound like something I'd do.

[Faithless]

^No. I don't live alone.

But it does sound like something I'd do.
Sounds like something they should adopt for the Oscars --

"We accept this award, muffy, for all the little peons (poor dears), watching us, wishing they were us. I should say. Ta ta for now."

[Shuriken]

That new movie Beauty Shop, starring Queen Latifah, is just about to come out. Maybe it's true what Chris Rock said during the Oscars: black films don't have real titles; they have place names instead, like Barber Shop and now Beauty Shop.

I can't wait for "Check-Cashin' Place"!