Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) executives were probably ecstatic last night after the drama "No Country for Old Men," which its Miramax unit co-produced, won the best picture Oscar. Today, they must be depressed because a record-low audience witnessed the company's triumph.Ratings for the Oscar telecast, broadcast on the company's ABC network, were probably the lowest of the decade, according to the New York Times. The telecast drew about 33% of people watching television, a steep decline from last year's 42%, the paper said.
This isn't a surprise. For one thing, as the paper notes, the leading movies weren't exactly crowd pleasers. Moreover, viewers got into the habit of not watching television thanks to the recent Hollywood writers' strike. Once media habits are established, they are hard to change. Perhaps, people have got enough on their minds with the faltering economy to watch overpaid celebrities pay homage to other overpaid celebrities.
Disney ad sales executives may be forced to give advertisers so-called make goods because of the ratings shortfall for failing to meet guarantees for viewership. ABC may be forced to give free advertising time on popular TV programs such as "Desperate Housewives" to appease angry advertisers. That may negate some of the benefit to the bottom line from "No Country's" Oscar triumph.
--Freelance writer Jonathan Berr edits the blog Ketchup and Eggs.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-25-2008 @ 4:53PM
Scott in Chicago said...
We also do not want to have anymore of our hard worked and overtaxed money to helped enhance the lifestyle of overpaid, under-educated, over rated, self centered and self annointed people who have taken it upon themselves to insult and bemean half of the customer base for their employers.
This is the only industry where the "commodity" runs the business.
Now I understand that these "artists" may go on strike themselves. I guess it's really hard to get by on $20 million a movie. THEY ARE MOVIE STARS, NOT ACTORS! Real actors perform live on the stage.
They are famous people, not IMPORTANT people. And they hugely lack something that there counterparts of the golden age had - - -CLASS.
2-25-2008 @ 7:07PM
Lucia said...
Most of the clothes the "stars" were wearing cost as much as 2-3 months worth of mortgage payments for the average american public. Who needs to have their noses rubbed in such disparity? Another thing probably bothering folks are the constant reminders from the media how much money Myley Cyrus types are/will be worth any day now. A lot of good,clever, kind people get up awfully early in the morning and stay awfully late in the evening at jobs that probably aren't paying enough just to keep all the bills current, or quality food on the table.
2-25-2008 @ 7:14PM
media wiz said...
I haven't watched an award show since the 80's. It's all calculated to appeal to the lowest common denoninator.
2-25-2008 @ 8:03PM
Sheldon L said...
Sometimes the blockbusters and great movies coincide. Movies like the Godfather come to mind. It's plenty edgy but was also a big draw.
This years big draws were not the ones critically acclaimed. To most of the movie going audience this years 'No Country...' and 'There would be Blood', as well as 'Michael Clayton' did not provoke anything....It did not matter which won.
There are so many other awards shows and polling, very little was a surprise or controversial.
2-26-2008 @ 4:29PM
kitten said...
Well I hope that the writers and the studios now understand how their greed and arrogance worked against them. The WGA strike did nothing but drive people away to find better ways to use their time. Who knows if the TV audience will ever return. I hope SAG thinks twice before it decides to strike. The glory days of Hollywood are over. People want real and that can't be found on television. In case studio heads read this, real does not mean "reality."