ABC and the people who hand out the Oscars are breathing sighs of relief: The Ringers showed up.
Sunday's telecast of the 76th annual Academy Awards, dominated by the 11-Oscar sweep by "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," enjoyed a sharp rebound from the record-low ratings for last year's ceremony, which came during the early days of the Iraq war.
The ratings -- no doubt helped by "Ringers," as fans of the "Rings" film trilogy describe themselves -- offered some solace to struggling ABC, owned by Walt Disney Co., and relief to first-time Oscar producer Joe Roth.
ABC and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had taken a gamble by shortening the Oscar campaign season and moving the ceremony to its earliest date since 1942. The idea was to give ABC a much-needed ratings boost by placing the program for the first time in the February sweeps period, while also helping the academy avoid awards show fatigue and some of the negative campaigning that a longer awards season can bring.
The gambit appears to have succeeded, though not spectacularly.
An average of 43.5 million viewers tuned in Sunday, the biggest audience since 2000 and a gain of 32% over last year's telecast, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research. Nielsen estimates that at least 73.4 million viewers saw some part of the show, which ran slightly over its scheduled 3 1/2 hours. It ended at 9:17 p.m. PST.
In 2002, an average audience of just under 42 million people watched the Oscars, when "A Beautiful Mind" won best picture.
Traditionally, blockbuster movies in best picture contention correspond with better-rated Oscar broadcasts, and "Return of the King" already has passed the $1-billion mark worldwide.
Even with that presumed fan effect, Sunday's ratings were far below the Oscar telecast's all-time record in 1998, when 55.3 million viewers saw "Titanic" win best picture.
Although Oscar's reach will probably help ABC avoid an embarrassing last-place finish in total viewers for the February sweeps period, the network is projected to rank a distant fourth among the young adults favored by advertisers, further underscoring ABC's serious problems in prime time.
Nonetheless, ABC pronounced itself pleased with the results.
"I'm in a great mood," Andrea Wong, ABC's senior vice president of alternative series and specials, said Monday. "It exceeded our expectations."
