Show Academy Awards clock smallest audience on record Lisa deMoraes The Washington Post Awards dominated by films no ones one's seen actors noone's no noone's noone's ones one's heard of the worst songs since 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall Vall and ironically some of the worst writing since Cavemen clocked the trophy shows show's smallest audience on record about 32 million viewers That beats the previous lowin lowin low lowin in 2003 by 1 million viewers Th That t ye year r industry navel-gazers navel blamed the lo lousy sy Oscar ratings I r on the fact that the trophy show aired shortly after the United States invaded Iraq and viewers just weren't in the mood That and the fact that a musical Chicago had been named Best Picture This year of course they cant can't use that argument owing to the war being in its ts sixth year- year and the pix best winner No Country for Old Men is a grisly Coen brothers flick about a psycho- psycho killer with bad hair This years year's audience is the smallest for the since 1974 when Nielsen began reporting the actual number of viewers watching a program The shows show's household ratings just percent of the country's TV homes were tuned to the Oscars makes it the rated lowest-rated Academy Awards since the show was first televised nationally in 1953 with Bob Hope hosting Casting about for an explanation some navel-gazers navel speculate the trophy shows show's low numbers may may be further evidence of the hangover effect of the prolonged writers writers' strike It does I appear viewers arent aren't rushing back to broadcast TV even though the strike ended more than a week before the giving the clear all-clear signal for list A-list to attend and allowing writers to participate in the show And what writing it was Host Jon Stewart Hello everybody Welcome Back to to the program Our next presenter is either an internationally acclaimed movie star or an auto dealership Ladies and gentlemen Harrison Ford o |