Rethink.

As I discussed in a post Thursday , Oscar ceremony ratings hit an all-time low last year . So this year, getting above 32 million viewers didn't seem like a huge challenge. The challenge I hoped the new producers, along with a Hugh Jackman-hosted ceremony, would meet was the 46.2 million threshold, putting the ceremony in the Top 10 for best rated telecasts. Alas, it was an uphill battle. With no "Dark Knight" Best Picture nominations, viewers and film goers were not happy with the snub. And the results are... "Ratings for this year's Academy Awards improved substantially over last year and are the highest for any TV show (sports excluded) in two years ," according to Zap2It.com . ABC says an average of 36.3 million people watched the 81st annual Oscars on Sunday , making it the most-watched entertainment program of the season and bigger than any other entertainment program since the 2007 Oscars' 40.17 million viewers. The adults 18-49 rating was up, to...

As the show starts, here are my predictions (and winners): I got 19/24 correct. Tied for the lead in my pool. Best Picture “Slumdog Millionaire” √ Best Director Danny Boyle √ Best Actor Sean Penn √ Best actress Kate Winslet √ Best Supporting Actor Heath Ledger √ Best Supporting Actress Taraji P. Henson X Penélope Cruz Best Original Screenplay "Milk" √ Best Adapted Screenplay Simon Beaufoy for “Slumdog Millionaire” √ Best Foreign-Language Film “Waltz With Bashir” X "Departures" Best Animated Feature “Wall-E” √ Best Original Song “Jai Ho” √ Best Musical Score “Slumdog Millionaire” √ Best Art Direction Donald Burft, Victor Zolfo for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” √ Best Cinematography Anthony Dod Mantle for “Slumdog Millionaire” √ Best Costume Design “The Duchess” √ Best Film Editing “Slumdog Millionaire” √ Best Makeup “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” √ Best Sound Editing “The Dark Knight” √ Best Sound Mixing “The Dark Knight” X "Slum...

On Saturday, I will not be blogging too much. Why? I will be at the movie for - wait for it - 14 HOURS! Yes, tomorrow, as I've done in the past, will be devoted to seeing all five Best Picture nominees - “ The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), “ Frost/Nixon ” (Universal), “ Milk ” (Focus Features), “ The Reader ” (The Weinstein Company) and “ Slumdog Millionaire ” (Fox Searchlight). AMC Theatres offers this quite amazing opportunity to see all the nominees back-to-back in a special package . It's $30 - or $25 for rewards members - and includes all five movies, large popcorn, unlimited pop and a cool collectible pass so you can leave the theater between showings and walk around. Here is the schedule: # Milk 10:30 a.m. # The Reader 1:05 p.m. # The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 3:45 p.m. # Slumdog Millionaire 7:15 p.m. # Frost/Nixon 9:45 p.m. Entertainment Weekly named the Best Picture Showcase No. 1 on its " Must List " for this week. ...

And the award goes to... Faheem Ahmed and Anish Patel from Rice University . The team has been selected as the Grand Prize winners for the first-ever “Oscar Correspondent Contest,” a joint promotion by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and mtvU. Their coverage will be posted on www.Oscars.mtvU.com the week of February 23. Congrats! I'll try to get an interview with them and post it this weekend. Photo: Faheem Ahmed (left) and Anish Patel from Rice University have earned a spot on the red carpet and will also have access to the backstage press rooms and the Governors Ball. Photo: Darren Decker / ©A.M.P.A.S.

If you are like me, you stay up late at night and wonder what this year's Oscar ceremony graphics would look like. Well, even if you are even close to that description, I've found a picture, thanks to the Academy, of what looks like this year's logo and artwork. I mentioned in a post earlier this week that the theme for this year's show was going to be "a rich, deep blue ." Other notes: The Academy and mtvU will be announcing the Red Carpet correspondent at noon PST / 3 p.m. EST. So I'll keep you posted on the lucky team of students chosen to stand on the red carpet and interview celebs. The finalists will be on ET tonight , according to one of the teams. Also, I interviewed a very happy finalist , Megan Telles, Wednesday night and am playing to chat with the other two teams. Those interviews will be posted here this weekend. I am currently editing my OSCAR® SPECIAL for my talk show and will let everyone know when it's online. More prep work is bein...

Recent ratings for the Academy Awards have been - to say the least - abysmal , a downward trend of bad to worse. Ratings for last year's ceremony were the lowest ever, according to Nielsen figures, and down nearly 20 percent from the year before. ABC’s showing of the 80th Annual Academy Awards attracted 32 million viewers . The broadcast lasted from 8:30 to 11:38 p.m. ET ( Source ). The 2003 ceremony was Oscar's previous low, with 33 million viewers ( Source ). An average of 39.9 million people watched the 79th annual Academy Awards two years ago, an improvement of one million viewers from the year before but still down from the '04 and '05 shows. "The Departed" took home the Best Picture Oscar. Ellen DeGeneres hosted; the show ran about three hours and 50 minutes -- the longest Oscarcast since the 2002 show, which stretched to more than four hours ( Source ). According to a study by Nielsen Preview , Academy Awards viewership correlates directly with the b...

Tomorrow evening, my talk show's annual Oscar ® Special airs on my Web site, http://jmolnar.net/chat . We filmed the episode on Valentine's Day and our panelists had some great commentary to share. Here is the preview: Side note : Voting ends tomorrow evening for mtvU's Red Carpet Correspondent contest. Vote here .