Shelly Palmer: The Oscars: A Lesson or Just a Bad Show?

The Oscars telecast averaged an 18.7 rating and a 29 share. That's TV-Geek-Speak for the lowest ratings since 1974, about 32 million viewers -- a 20% drop from last year. Some pundits are blaming the dismal ratings on the dark nature of the top films. Best picture, No Country for Old Men focused on a psychopathic killer. While it's true that many of the nominated work was not exactly family fare, I'm not sure you can blame this year's ratings on the films. And, I'm not sure that the Awards Show genre is to blame either. The problem may be simple economics: supply and demand. There was a time when "The Oscars" was special. It was one of the few nights of the year you could see your favorite movie stars on display -- this created scarcity in the marketplace. Movie stars, and their management, knew that the vaudeville admonition, "Always leave them wanting more," was an immutable law of stardom. Stars, especially big stars, were only on display in limited quantities. George C. Scott, one of the ... (link)