2008 Oscars (lowest rated) - No Country For Old Men was the winner, Jon Stewart hosted. 32 million viewers
1998 Oscars (highest rated) - Titanic was the winner, Billy Crystal hosted. 57 million viewers
2014 Oscars - 12 Years a Slave was the winner, Ellen Degeneres hosted. 44 million viewers

Where will 2015 land?

I'd guess around 47 mil.

probably less than last year, 40 million.

Less than last year for sure. There are little to no heavy hitters with the public support like previous years.

Two weeks ago I would have said around 37-38 million, but with American Sniper being so huge right now, I'm gonna go with 43 million.

28 million.

That's kind of a no-duh statement, sir. I don't think anyone's predicting it to be higher. ALTHOUGH..... who's hosting this year?? Is it Melissa McCarthy?
40.1m viewers this year

Neil Patrick Harris

He's the perfect host, as he's proven with the Tony's, but I'm not sure how many people he'll bring in on his first attempt.

Before AS I could've seen this falling below 32 million. I couldn't believe The Grand Budapest was actually the leader in terms of box office of all the nominees when they were announced (with $59 million). But now that AS is huge, it definitely won't be the least viewed.

Right now I'm thinking 38 million.

Would not be surprised to see Sienna Miller present now at the Oscars. They'll definitely get Clint and Bradley to present big awards as well.

High 30's for sure.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2015/0 ... at/366413/

36.6 million viewers - Six year low (Slumdog Millionaire)
10.8 18-49 rating - Eight year low (The Departed)

Imagine these numbers without American Sniper. I hope the Academy realizes this isn't NPH's fault and invites him back to host again soon. This just wasn't an interesting crop of films for most people this year.

Oh WOW! That's horrible :-( poor NPH. He'll get the blame.

Why wasn't it NPH's fault? How can you even be so sure?

I wouldn't say it was his "fault"... but him not being a big star played a part. And I'm sure him being gay also played a part. But a lot of it was the lack of big movies being nominated.

nobody who watches the OSCARS would avoid doing so because the host is gay

Old people, bro.

I think NPH did not have a negative effect on this year's ratings. The truth is the films this year were hardly as popular as last year's batch.Gravity, American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street, Captain Phillips all 100+ million hits. This year the films did not really click with the people who would consider watching the Oscars. The only big hit among the nominees was American Sniper, which definitely attracted some viewers. But I would also argue that a large share of Sniper's audience has never and will never care about the Oscars. Also big stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, JLaw, Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock were nominated last year (drawing in those Leo fans especially who wanted to see if he would finally win that Oscar). This year was completely lacking in big star draws.

As if the Oscars weren't the second gayest thing already.

Viewership was 16% lower than last year. That's not too large, is it? Next year might be different altogether since Meron and Zadan are not producing anymore.