Regarding the Oscars, Orrin Judd writes, "When we were kids everyone used to watch them--they used to celebrate the movies. Know anyone who still does now that they celebrate Hollywood's politics?"

Drudge has the early ratings:

ABC PULLS 27.4 RATING/42 SHARE IN EARLY OVERNIGHTS AT 'OSCARS'... MORE... IF NUMBERS HOLD, WOULD BE 3RD LEAST- WATCHED OSCARS, JOINING LOW 2006, 2003... MORE...

If the Drudge numbers are correct, at some point in the future, just as C-SPAN covers the bulk of national political conventions, watch for the Oscars to move up the dial, out of the over-the-air networks and into the realm of cable. Maybe E! or HBO could host them. Or Current TV.

Related:

Survey shows high ticket prices and poor film selections causing some to think twice about heading out to catch the latest blockbuster.

A theater owner in Spain has one solution; its arrival seems inevitable in the US.

Update: Outside The Beltway agrees:

Gore joins a growing line of liberal political activists to win major awards in recent years: The Dixie Chicks, Michael Moore, and Hillary Clinton come readily to mind in the “arts.” Then there’s Jimmy Carter and virtually every other recent winner of the Nobel Peace prize.

One wonders how long these awards will retain their credibility? It’s bad enough that actors and directors often win awards for mediocre late-career performances as a make-up for being snubbed for more deserving work over the years. But to so overtly use these awards to send a political message can’t sit that well with the majority of the country to whom that message is being sent.

(Via Jules Crittenden.)

Meanwhile, Libertas notes an inconvenient omission.