Cooler but still well above normal this week

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Early indications are that an Academy Awards
telecast where "The Hurt Locker" topped the popular "Avatar"
for best picture was popular with viewers.


      The Nielsen Co.'s overnight measurement of the nation's 56
biggest markets gave ABC's Sunday telecast a 26.5 rating and 40
audience share. That's a 14 percent increase over the same rating
for last year's telecast, when "Slumdog Millionaire" was named
best picture.


      Nielsen is expected to give an estimate of the audience size
later Monday. Last year's telecast was seen by 36.3 million people.
Each rating point represents 1,149,000 households, and the share
means that 40 percent of the televisions being used at the time
were tuned into the Oscars.


      The metered market ratings aren't completely comparable to past
years since Nielsen is using digital video recording data for the
first time. Anyone who recorded the Oscars and started watching
them a little later - either because they weren't home on time or
wanted to avoid commercials - are counted this year and in previous
years they weren't.


      Ratings for the New York market seemed unaffected by a business
dispute between Cablevision and ABC's parent Walt Disney Co.


      ABC had been dropped by Cablevision for its 3.1 million
subscribers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut on Sunday, and
the network was not restored until 13 minutes after the Academy
Awards telecast began.


      The Oscars had a 29.4 rating in the New York market, Nielsen
said. That was 11 percent above the average for other big cities
and No. 13 among those cities.

Gallery

Bigelow pioneers Oscars with `Hurt Locker' win

Oscars: History and odd facts

Lifestyle

Early ratings show about 14% more people watched this year's Academy Awards show, compared with last year.

Oscars attracted more viewers this year

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox