So, it turns out the 80th annual Academy Awards presentation were a big flop in the ratings, as least compared to previous years. I know I didn’t watch, and haven’t really been an avid viewer for the better part of a decade.  I think the last time I was really interested in the Oscars was when The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was nominated and won Best Picture.  Some would say the Oscars are irrelevant to most viewers because they don’t see the films, and I think there’s some truth to that.  Not one of the Best Picture nominees was a box office smash and most will be lucky to recoup their cost with DVD sales.  I’m sure Marion Cotillard was well deserving of the award of Best Actress, but how many viewers have actually seen La Vie en Rose?  For that matter, how many viewers have actually see any of the other actress nominated films?

Of course, I’m not one of those people who thinks the Oscars should nominate for successful films.  Look 2007’s five most successful films:  Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  Were any of these five really Oscar worthy?  Some point to popular films being nominated and winning in the past.  For example, Gone With the Wind was hugely popular and won for Best Picture.  If this film has been made today, and if it could get past the PC Police, I think it would be like Titanic — makes lots of money and win Best Picture.  However, consider other Best Picture winners:  Rebecca, How Green Was My Valley, and Casablanca from the 1940s; All About Eve, An American in Paris, and From Here to Eternity from the 1950s.  Of these two groups Casablanca and From Here to Eternity might be hits today and I think it’s a big “might” for Casablanca, but would films like How Green Was My Valley and An American in Paris be any different than No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood?

What it comes down to, I think, is there really isn’t as much interest in these award shows as there used to be.  While a certain group will always be interested in the celebrity lifestyle, the cable-spawned, never-ending onslaught of celebrity news makes it all not so interesting anymore.  Who really cares what someone’s wearng on the red carpet.  Most of us certainly can’t afford to dress like, not even the knock-offs!  Networks will just have to get used to the idea that the days of old when half the television audience would tune in the Oscars has passed.