Oscar ratings bump

 

There was no droning, monotone Sid Ganis speech, and the suits from PriceWaterhouseCoopers didn't get their usual time in the spotlight.

If those had been the only two changes to this year's Oscar telecast, that would've been a decent start for us. Truth was, there was a much broader revamp, as the Academy and first-time producers Larry Mark and Bill Condon had promised.

Much to discuss on this Day After, like why in the world "Last Chance Harvey" got even one second of montage time, but we'll pick a place and start:

First, the ratings. In other words, did the advance hype translate to more eyeballs watching the "81st Annual Academy Awards?" Early word from brother blog Live Feed says yes; ABC is reporting a 6% bump in major markets and expects to see as much as a 10% jump in overall viewing once it gets the final tallies.

Since the telecast sank to record lows last year, with 32 million people watching, the preliminary numbers would seem to indicate that the full-court marketing press from the network and the Academy convinced some lapsed, on-the-fence or uninterested viewers to take a look.

Since the winners weren't much of a surprise, we expect a lot of the talk today to be about the kudocast itself. Come on back as we deconstruct.