Moved well, didnt feel incredibly dull and was classy. One of the better shows in recent years.

Twas good. I liked the added touch of the silhouettes, costume nominees being displayed on stage, and while she wasn't a knee-slapper Ellen was enjoyable. Happy with the results too.

Ellen was funny. I thought she did a better job than Jon Stewart and Chris Rock. Probably only Billy Crystal and Whoppi have done better jobs.

I'd keep both the new producer and Ellen. Both were great at running a good show. So many awesome moments. The late news bits are now showing clips and showcasing the big wins, but also things like Al Gore's setup with Leo on pretending to announce candidacy and being cut off by the music and other cool things about the show. I enjoyed the show a lot.

Peace,
Mike.

One of the best in recent memory, yup. Ellen can do no wrong and the rest of the show moved along quite well. I wasn't fond of the stage design, though (This is the most important thing, of course!).

And the winners? I guess they were ok, too. :-P I'm actually very happy with the results.

I hope the show gets big ratings - looking forward to finding out tomorrow what they were.

Anybody have a list of the previous shows ratings for the past years or so?

Peace,
Mike.

Yeah, it was good. Ellen was consistently funny with very little flopping, presentations of the awards that felt like a true tribute (Loved the presenting of the screenplays particularly), side bits that were interesting instead of annoying (The shadowdancers, Jack and Will's duet about comedians), and best of all, awesome wins (Sans Babel's score win and the CoM loss). The only thing that missed was a true powerhouse acceptance that had you talking, like Berry's or Brody's.

Great night overall. I hope it did well in the ratings.

I'll be interested to see what the ratings were by the hour. The first three hours of this show were dull as hell, with the exception of Ellen, and the skit by Black and Ferrell. The dancers and special effects choir were embarassing to watch and completely unecessary. Everything else moved incredibly slow, until the final five nominees or so. Why they chose to list the unimportant nominees first, and not capture a regular viewers interest by listing the best supporting actors first, is beyond me.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stori ... 074&EDATE=

Average Viewers on ABC Network
2006 -- 39 million
2005 -- 42 million
2004 -- 43 million
2003 -- 33 million
2002 -- 41 million
2001 -- 42 million

Outside of 2003, they're in a tight 4M range. I hope it at least tops 40M.

And man, how many surprises/upsets were there tonight? So many. Let's see:

The Danish Poet winning over The Match Girl for Best Animated Short.

Alan Arkin winning over Eddie Murphy for Best Supporting Actor

Happy Feet winning over Cars for Best Animated Film

Marie Antoinette winning over Dreamgirls for Best Costume Design (some people would argue that's not really an upset; I
wouldn't necessarily call it an upset, but the general consensus was for Dreamgirls all the way.)

The Lives of Others winning over Pan's Labyrinth for Best Foreign Language Film

"I Need to Wake Up", An Inconvenient Truth winning over "Listen", Dreamgirls for Best Original Song.

Those were 6 different awards winners that truly surprised me or were not what was expected.

Peace,
Mike.

Dang,whathappenedin2003?

Itwasagoodshow,fromwhatIsaw.IwatchedVanHelsingtilllike9:30cstthenwatchedtheOscars.Ellenwasgreat.

Berry's speech was only memorable for how awful and annoying it was She wouldn't shut up.

Yeah, it was a nice show. I'm soo glad that The Departed won.

Iraq, 4 days before. People were a little distracted.

The war

Ooohhh,wasthattheyearBenAfflecksaidalotofstuffandpeopledboo'ed(Ithink)?

chicago won in 2003. I remember it being a boring show too. The year before and after was helped by LOTR getting so many nominations (nobody thought TTT had a chance in 2003). I doubt this one approaches 2004 or 2005 for that matter. Should be around the ratings for last year maybe beat it.

Best show in years. Ellen was excellent and I actually laughed out loud a few times during the opening monologue. The comedians getting no respect song was funny as hell too. The silhouettes were very cool, the presentation of the picture nominees were classy, I dug the way they read excerpts of the scripts, all the moments where Ellen went down into the audience worked and all the pieces on cinema were entertaining.

Some overall good and bad moments...

The Good:

- The Departed coming out with the most (4) including the much deserved win for Marty (I welled up) and best picture. Editing really surprised me, since she just won two years ago, but hey, still deserving.
- The early Pan's Labyrinth ass-kicking was sweet
- Forrest Whitaker's acceptance speech was moving
- Inconvenient truth upsetting 3 Dreamgirls songs = brilliance
- Babel only getting one oscar after so many were building up its chances for picture, when such a similar film just won last year (and it was far better to boot).
- Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen presenting. Those two should make beautiful babies together. My two favourite actors.
- An upset in one of the acting categories. Nice to see.

The Bad:

- Children of Men was robbed of the cinematography oscar flat out. Pan's definitely was next best, but the gap should have been clear
- Babel winning score
- Alan Arkin winning best supporting actor. He was barely in Little miss Sunshine and I thought the movie really picked up when he departed (pardon the pun).
- getting raped in the oscar pool (13/24)

You mean Michael Moore, but yes. It was actually a pretty entertaining ceremony with some nice surprises (Eminem, The Pianist winning 3 out of nowhere).

The Jack Black thing was amazing. The kids announcing was great. The honorary oscar in italian thing was the best. The sihlouettes were cool. The host was occasionally funny. The results were alright: Pan's was robbed for foreign (but then, so was Volver), but good job elsewhere I guess. No CoM was a mistake, but I'm kinda glad it didn't just get the one or two lesser things...if it wasnt gonna go big, its really too good for the show. Picture/director was cool (bout time scorsese), acting was kinda boring, but deserved I guess (save Arkin, what a shock eh.) All round, my favorite in some time, though admittedly i wish the nominations to begin with would have been a little more kypade (ah, who am I kidding - I just wish CoM wouldve swept).

Btw, memo to Jack Nicholson: The sunglasses no longer work when you're bald.

I forgot about that myself. For some reason, I thought the war started in March.

Loved the show. But Jesus that part with the Italian receiving the honorary award almost stopped the show. And Clint just kept messing up! Ellen was very solid, and words cannot describe how overly thrilled I am that Marty won Best Director and the film won Best Picture. Just great.

And note to Eddie Murphy: It doesn't matter how much money you made from it, Norbit lost you the one chance to rise above your last 10 years of mediocrity.

Oh, and I still REALLY don't understand Jennifer Hudson's win. She possesses an amazing vocal talent, but nothing in that movie that she did screamed or even whispered Best Supporting Actress. She just wasn't that good.

Judging from this pic, he just shaved his head, porbably for The Bucket List (His next film).