Oscars pulled in small home crowd

Washington (ANI): The 80th Oscar Awards might have been high on the glamour and emotional quotient, but they weren't successful in drawing sufficient number of viewers sitting at home, for according to the ratings, the event was watched by the smallest crowd ever on record. According to Nielsen Media Research estimates, the three-hour-plus ABC telecast could only glue 32 million people to their TV sets.

The show 'topped' the 2003 ceremony, which, with 32 million viewers, was Oscar's previous low, reports E! Online. Even worse, if possible, the show was a shadow of its 2007 self, shedding more than 8 million viewers, or one-fifth of its audience, from last year to this. The main reason behind the small ratings could be female trouble, i.e. based on ratings of the show's prime-time hours, it struck out with the ladies.

Last year, with host Ellen DeGeneres at the helm, the Oscars was up across the board with women viewers. This year, with male Jon Stewart dealing, the show looked to be down, a lot, in all the major female demographics.