The Sked: ACADEMY AWARDS Telecast Ratings Prediction

Tonight's Academy Awards telecast on ABC should be short on suspense as The Artist sweeps to victory in the Best Picture and Best Director categories.  (See our Oscar Odds for more.)  While there is a race for Best Actor between Jean Dujardin (The Artist) and George Clooney (The Descendants) and for Best Actress between Viola Davis (The Help) and Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady), none of the four films in the running in the major acting categories has a broad, mainstream following.  The Help has the widest appeal, but that is stretching it.

We are forecasting a 10.4 rating with Adults 18-49 for the Oscars telecast tonight from 8:30 pm to approximately midnight ET, falling below the current record low of 10.7 for 2008's ceremony, when No Country for Old Men beat Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton and There Will Be Blood for Best Picture.  Also, there should be an average audience of 32.9 million viewers (ages 2 years or older) over the course of the show, not quite a record low.  2008 should keep that distinction (31.8 million), mainly because of population increases since then.  

The number to beat this year in the awards show world is the 14.1 rating with Adults 18-49 for The Grammys on February 12.  The real news would be if the Academy Awards even comes close to that mark.  


Note: The first numbers available Monday morning will be the fast national ratings, which measure the entire country but miscalculate the viewership Pacific and Mountain time zones (because the Oscars show, like live sports, is broadcast live to all time zones rather than the normal tape-delayed feed to the western United States).  The fast nationals for the Oscars could be as low as a 9.0 rating, awaiting a hefty adjustment upward when the western US ratings are re-processed.  Certainly, ABC has requested expedited official national ratings for the Oscars (which Nielsen will provide for an additional fee) to prevent especially low (and inaccurate) numbers from circulating in the press.