The Academy Awards attracted its smallest U.S. television audience ever on Sunday, according to Nielsen data reported by Walt Disney Co.'s ABC network, tracking a similar slide for other recent award shows and sports events.
Live TV broadcasts remain relatively attractive for advertisers because watchers cannot skip commercials, with prices for Oscars ad spots climbing despite 2017 viewership, which was the smallest in nine years.
The nearly four-hour live show averaged 26.5 million total viewers, according to Nielsen data in an ABC statement, down from 32.9 million in 2017 and below the 32 million in 2008, now the second-least watched year.
The figures do not include digital and mobile viewing.
Advertisers covet live audiences because they are more likely to view commercials than those watching recorded shows and events, driving pricing higher even as viewership shrinks. ABC owns broadcast rights for the Oscars through 2028.
The 90th Oscars, still expected to be 2018's most-watched nonsporting U.S. television event, honored romantic fantasy "The Shape of Water" as best picture.
The event built on the socially conscious tone of its past few years with themes of female empowerment and activism, but lacked any shocking moments like 2017's best picture mix-up.
Late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, host for the past two years, skewered industry-roiling sexual misconduct allegations and reports of gender-based pay disparities, while best actress winner Frances McDormand called for "inclusion riders" to boost Hollywood diversity.
ABC sold out its ad inventory for Sunday's Oscars broadcast and charged $2.6 million on average for a 30-second spot, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
That was a jump from $1.91 million in 2017, according to research firm Kantar Media, which said ABC generated $128 million from the 2017 telecast.
The Grammy Awards in January attracted 26.1 million television viewers, its smallest audience since 2006. February's Super Bowl professional football championship, the most-watched telecast of the year, saw its viewership decline 7 percent from a year earlier to 103.4 million.
ABC offered the live show on abc.com and the ABC app to those with a participating cable or satellite subscription in certain markets. It was also available on live TV services that stream ABC.
The telecast attracted 18.9 percent of viewers in 56 major markets, according to Nielsen’s preliminary overnight metered market household ratings, an ABC spokesman said earlier on Monday, down from 22.4 percent last year.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton isn't ready to believe that Kobe Bryant's Oscar means more to the Lakers legend than his five NBA titles.
"He said that? With a straight face?" Walton said Monday when quizzed by reporters about Bryant's comments. "I didn't see it but I would imagine there was some sarcasm in there. But hey, I don't know. That's his call."
Bryant, 39, won the Academy Award for best animated short Sunday for "Dear Basketball," a collaboration with artist Glen Keane and legendary composer John Williams.
"It feels better than winning a championship, to be honest," Bryant told reporters backstage after collecting his statuette.
"As a kid, I grew up dreaming of winning a championship, but to have something like this coming out of left field... people asked, 'What do you want to do when you retire?' and I said, 'writer.'
"And they were like, 'That's cute,'" Bryant said. "But to be here right now, to have a sense of validation -- it's crazy, man."
Bryant was already a Los Angeles icon, but in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal, his honor created some consternation from those who remembered his arrest over the suspected rape of a 19-year-old hotel worker in Colorado in 2003.
Bryant admitted to a sexual encounter, but insisted it was consensual. The criminal case was dropped when the accuser refused to testify, but Bryant faced a civil suit that was settled out of court with no admission of guilt from the NBA star.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MVP, five-time NBA champion, and now, an Academy Award winner.
Kobe Bryant added another trophy to his vast collection on Sunday, as his ode to the sport, "Dear Basketball," won the Oscar for Best Animated Short.
The animated short was based around the poem that Bryant wrote to announce his retirement after 20 years of playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, first published on The Players Tribune.
In its brief review, Variety wrote that Bryant's work "packs a powerful emotional punch," thanks in part to the music by John Williams.
"It’s strange, yet surprisingly effective to witness Bryant’s familiar profile transformed into an adorable, Disney-style kiddo via animation legend Glen Keane’s loose graphite drawings," Peter Debruge wrote ahead of the Oscars.
"We see cute, cartoon Kobe sitting on the bed, clutching a basketball as big as his head, dreaming of a pro sports career in precisely the way his success has inspired so many others."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LONDON -- Gary Oldman's Oscar win on Sunday for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in "Darkest Hour" is a triumph for a versatile actor more used to playing villains and rogues than heroic statesmen.
The 59-year-old British actor, who famously portrayed Sex Pistols star Sid Vicious in "Sid and Nancy" (1986), made his name as a bankable movie star playing antagonists.
He goes to great lengths to develop his characters and ploughed through books, newsreel footage and even sat in Churchill's chair to play the World War II leader as he became Britain's prime minister in May 1940.
Oldman is known for his signature "big" acting -- a very physical, over-the-top style developed for the stage, used to great effect for his villainous cinema characters and retained for other roles.
His portrayal of Churchill in "Darkest Hour" had already landed him the best actor Golden Globe -- and the Oscar, which comes on his second nomination, now seals his reputation as one of the finest actors working today.
"I would just like to salute Sir Winston Churchill, who has been marvelous company on what can be described as an incredible journey," Oldman told the Oscars audience on Sunday.
Previously, he had said he welcomed all the accolades, but that the greatest reward was receiving approval from Churchill's descendants.
"Randolph just loves the portrayal. And he feels, 'Oh, you've captured my great-grandpapa -- the humour, the energy.'
"That's my Oscar, right there," he told CNN.
Becoming Churchill
In winning the Academy Award, Oldman defeated a tough field: Timothee Chalamet ("Call Me by Your Name"); Daniel Day-Lewis for "Phantom Thread"; Daniel Kaluuya for "Get Out"; and Denzel Washington for "Roman J. Israel, Esq."
Oldman's prior best actor Oscar nomination came in 2012 for his portrayal of melancholy British agent George Smiley in an adaptation of the John le Carre thriller novel "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy".
Building the part of Churchill, Oldman said he first concentrated on the voice, feeling that he physically looked nothing like the great statesman.
"He is such an icon and so mythologised, you wonder, can you get past the marble statue and reach the man?" he told CNN.
He was captivated by newsreel footage, noting the energy in Churchill's walk and the sparkle in his eyes, revealing an inner sense of humor.
Oldman toured parliament and Churchill's family homes and sat in the chair he used during World War II.
He noticed fingernail marks on the left arm and scratches from his ring on the right -- history recorded in the furniture -- which he took as signs of the stress Churchill was under, and incorporated it into his performance.
Breakthrough as Sid Vicious
Oldman left school at 16 and took a job in a sports shop.
Failing to get into the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he studied at Rose Bruford drama school in southeast London and spent a successful decade in theatre.
He burst onto the screen in 1986 with his critically acclaimed portrayal of punk rocker Vicious. He lost so much weight to play the Sex Pistols bassist that he was briefly hospitalized.
Oldman rose to prominence as a leading figure in the "Brit pack": the gang of up-and-coming British actors of the 1980s that included Day-Lewis, Colin Firth and Tim Roth.
He played Lee Harvey Oswald in "JFK" (1991), Count Dracula in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992) and starred in "Leon" (1994) and "The Fifth Element" (1997).
He had recurring roles in the Batman "Dark Knight" trilogy and the "Harry Potter" series.
He also tried his hand at writing and directing, winning a host of awards in 1997 for "Nil by Mouth" -- a tale of drink, drugs and violence inspired by his own childhood on a south London housing estate.
Oldman's own father was, he says, an abusive alcoholic who left the family when his son was seven.
The actor had a well-publicized struggle with alcohol himself and it took a 70-hour drinking binge for him to realize his life was lurching out of control.
Oldman is now sober and in his fifth marriage, having tied the knot with Gisele Schmidt in 2017. He has three sons from previous marriages, though not from his two-year union with actress Uma Thurman.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Producer J. Miles Dale (left), director Guillermo del Toro (at microphone) share the stage with the cast and crew of 'The Shape of Water' as they receive the Best Picture Award during the 90th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center on Sunday in Hollywood, California.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
