  Comic Chris Rock will host the 77th Academy Awards telecast on Sunday. |
Looks like the joke's on Chris Rock. With the clock ticking down to Sunday's Oscars, the ever-acerbic Rock is facing a comedian's worst nightmare: an empty room. Or at least a shrinking one. Not at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, mind you -- there, you won't find a vacant seat.
But where it counts -- namely, in tens of millions of North American households -- it's another story. This past awards show season has been one of the lowest-rated in recent memory. The Grammys? Down a startling 28% from last year. The Golden Globes? Down 37% making it the least-watched Globes ever on NBC. Last September's Emmys? Down 34%. And despite Alanis Morissette's nude bodysuit -- or maybe because of it -- last year's Junos took a nosedive from 2003.
So the prospect of this year's Oscar telecast ranking among the least-watched ever is a little ironic, given that Rock recently made headlines for an interview he gave Entertainment Weekly in which he declared the Oscars "a fashion show" and said he doesn't watch it. Should Hollywood's Chicken Littles prove correct and the sky does fall on the Academy Awards, look for Rock to, in part, be the scapegoat -- going down alongside David Letterman in the Uma-Oprah hall of ratings shame.
DESPERATE TIMES
Not that the comic will deserve the blame.
If anything, his recent remarks have at least goosed some interest in the ceremony. For Hollywood, the issue is a bigger one -- the possibility that its annual parade of back-slapping is starting to show more cracks than Michael Jackson's face.
Almost immediately, the low viewer turnout for the Grammys and the People's Choice Awards was blamed on the same culprit: the ABC ratings juggernaut Desperate Housewives.
But the Oscars won't have the same excuse if their show tanks; since both the Academy Awards and Housewives air on ABC, there'll be no head-to-head clash. Maybe the sagging Nielsen numbers just signal awards show burnout -- there are too many of them, all as boring, self-important and overlong as the next one. Or maybe star-loving fans -- like children gorged on candy -- are losing their appetite for high-glucose celebrity preening.
Not that anyone would care if not for the fact that the Oscars -- conceived as an annual advertisement for the film industry and, specifically, quality movies that deserve some recognition -- count on TV ratings and ad revenue.
As with all things, it comes down to money -- and that goes for the movies, too.
Rock notwithstanding, if the Oscars do bomb, the blame will likely be assigned on the nominated films themselves -- none of which have grossed more than $100 million at the box office.
Million Dollar Baby, Finding Neverland and Sideways haven't even cracked $60 million. The Aviator and Ray have managed to top $70 million -- but compare that to the $1.8 billion Titanic earned or the $900 million last year's winner Lord of the Rings: Return of the King made.
Then you begin to understand why executives at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science are filled with dread. Says academy's executive director Bruce Davis, "I think it's fair to say it does concern us a bit."
Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations, explains people like to have a vested interest in what they're watching.
"Eyeballs staring at the movie screen translates to eyeballs staring at the TV screen."
So it looks like possibly the only one in Tinseltown not worried about the ratings aftermath may be -- fittingly -- Rock himself.
After all, it's not like any of his friends watch the Oscars anyway.
-- with files from Sun News Services
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