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Jon Levine -- the media editor for the entertainment site The Wrap -- has penned an opinion piece for The New York Post that's sure to get him a glare or two at the office on Monday.Levine suggests that conservative actor James Woods might just be what the Academy Awards needs to inject some life into the show's ever-dwindling viewership. With the 2019 Golden Globe Awards now upon us, only one thing is for sure: Not a lot of people are going to watch. Ratings for the event last year fell 5 percent from their 2017 numbers and have fallen three...

With the 2019 Golden Globe Awards now upon us, only one thing is for sure: Not a lot of people are going to watch. Ratings for the event last year fell 5 percent from their 2017 numbers and have fallen three out of the last four years. Oscars and Emmys? Even worse, with the 2018 shows declining 20 percent and 10 percent respectively from their 2017 ratings numbers. Reversing this moribund picture calls for more than just tinkering along the edges. How can the creative class convince millions of Americans who have tuned out to give them a second chance?...

Kevin Host is officially set to host the 91st Academy Awards ceremony. "I will be sure to make this years Oscars a special one," the comedian wrote Tuesday afternoon in an Instagram post, adding, "now it's time to rise to the occasion." The star is emceeing the event for the first time. First-time producers Donna Gigliotti and Glenn Weiss will oversee the show, with Gigliotti serving as producer and Weiss on hand as co-producer and director. Earlier on Tuesday, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had held talks with the comedian about hosting...

Just days after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted to expel Roman Polanski from its ranks, the director's attorney sent a letter to the organization Tuesday morning, arguing the move was unlawful and threatening to take legal action if Polanski is not granted a hearing. In his letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, Polanski's attorney, Harland Braun, said the academy had failed to follow both its own rules and California law in denying the Oscar-winning director a chance to present his own case. "We are not here contesting the merits of the expulsion...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Tuesday evening that it was clearing its president, John Bailey, of any wrongdoing after an investigation into an allegation of sexual harassment against him. On March 13, the academy had received a claim that the 75-year-old veteran cinematographer, who was elected to lead the organization in August, had attempted to inappropriately touch a woman while riding in a transportation van on a movie set more than a decade ago. (Early reports had suggested there were multiple allegations against Bailey, but the academy noted that there was only one.) But after an...

Karl Schmid, an on-camera reporter for ABC’s Los Angeles affiliate, came out as HIV positive on Friday night in a powerful Facebook post about stigma and acceptance. The 37-year-old Australian import covers human interest stories and Hollywood on ABC7, reporting from events like the Academy Awards and the annual Vanity Fair Oscar party. After a decade living with HIV, Schmid said he came forward despite numerous industry peers urging him to stay quiet. “For 10 years I’ve struggled with ‘do I or don’t I?’ For ten years the stigma and industry professionals have said, ‘don’t! It’ll ruin you,”’ wrote Schmid....

FLEMING: Why were the Oscar ratings down 19% to the smallest viewership level of all time? I found it a most satisfying show. Jimmy Kimmel and producers Mike De Luca and Jennifer Todd did a fine job all the way to the finish line this time, owning last year’s gaffe and ensuring it didn’t happen with foolproof 100-point type on each envelope. Kimmel was hilarious; the film montages and special presenters infused the 90th Oscars with a sense of film history. Compared to the men-are-bad funereal atmosphere of the Golden Globes, this show was fun but still managed graceful moments...

Lowest rated Oscars in HISTORY. Problem is, we don’t have Stars anymore - except your President (just kidding, of course)!

On Sunday night, in a restroom at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, I was washing my hands when someone in a crimson ballgown swept past me toward the stalls. There was something about this person's energy that was different than that of other women who were milling around, redoing their lipstick, chatting about the Oscars show. I felt I knew this person in the crimson gown. Or had seen them somewhere before. So I left the bathroom and waited outside, in the lobby. And when this person left the ladies room, I stopped them to chat.

Last night’s ceremony drew a 18.9 Live+Same Day rating in the metered market households. That was off 16% from last year’s 22.4 rating, which was a nine-year low. The 18.9 appears to be an all-time low for the Oscars, below the previous low ratings point for the Oscars, logged with the 2008 telecast (21.9), hosted by Jon Stewart, when No Country For Old Men won Best Picture.

Los Angeles (AFP) – Early ratings released Monday for ABC’s 90th Academy Awards telecast — one of the more uneventful shows of recent years — stumbled to an-all time low, US media reported. Overnight returns have the near four-hour show averaging an 18.9 overnight Nielsen rating — a number equating roughly to the percentage of America’s estimated 118.4 million households that tuned in — according to trade weeklies Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. That represents a 16 percent drop on last year’s telecast, which will go down in infamy for its disastrous climax, when the wrong movie was briefly awarded...

The telecast stumbles an unfortunate 19 percent from 2017. A comparatively uneventful Oscar telecast led the way on TV Sunday night — though updated numbers have the telecast somewhat predictably stumbling to an all-time low. The telecast, nearly four hours long, stumbled 19 percent from the previous year to 26.5 million viewers. That's easily the least-watched Oscars in history, trailing 2008 by more than 5 million. Overnight returns had the lengthy ABC telecast averaging a 18.9 rating among households between 8 and 11 p.m. ET. Compared to the same stat for 2017, the night the wrong best picture winner was...

In case you missed the Oscars last night, host Jimmy Kimmel predictably lectured the country about politics, harped on leftism, went after Fox News and repeatedly made terribly unfunny jokes about Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump. “We don’t make films like ‘Call Me By Your Name’ for money. We make them to upset Mike Pence," Kimmel said.Ahead of the big show Sunday night, Kimmel made it known he would engage in activism from the stage but according to the numbers, it didn't pay off. From TheWrap:  Jimmy Kimmel’s return as Oscars host received an 18.9 rating in Nielsen’s overnight...

Best actress winner Frances McDormand has been reunited with her Oscar after it was stolen from her table inside the Governor's Ball, the official Oscars after-party. The "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" actress was spotted at the party getting her Oscar engraved. The 60-year-old star realized later that it had gone missing.

The ratings for Sunday night’s telecast of the 90th annual Academy Awards collapsed by a whopping 16 percent, which would mean an all-time low, according to early estimates. Variety reports that the “8 p.m.-11 p.m. portion of ABC’s telecast averaged an 18.9 household rating and 32 share in Nielsen’s metered market overnight ratings … That’s down about 16% from the 22.5/37 rating generated by the 2017 Oscars.” According to Deadline, the “18.9 appears to be an all-time low for the Oscars, below the previous low ratings point for the Oscars, logged with the 2008 telecast (21.9).” The ratings will be...

Creature From the Black Lagoon meets mute woman at a secret space project in Baltimore run by a 5-star general. They bond over hard boiled egges. They also fall in love and mate in a bathtub. Meanwhile a Redneck tortures the Creature with an Alabama Cattle Prod. Even though the Creature is supposed to be vital for space program research, all the scientists and the 5-star general allow the Redneck to continue torturing the creature. Meanwhile the Russkies attempt to kill the Creature via a kind-hearted Commie spy in the project who won't go along with the murder plot. Creature...

Bucking expectations that this year's Academy Awards would be less stridently political, second-time host Jimmy Kimmel focused almost exclusively on politics, nearly dropping any pretense of humor. His monologue concluded with a call for Americans to attend a pro-gun control rally later this month and featured several barbs directed at the Trump Administration. Just seconds into the 90th annual Oscars, Kimmel introduced Lupito Nyong'o, an actress of Kenyan and Mexican descent. "Let the tweet storm from the president's toilet begin," Kimmel then commented. Concluding, Kimmel made a call for Americans to attend a March 24th rally in support of new...

Sam Rockwell won the Supporting Actor Award. I want to see how well Dunkirk and Darkest Hours do tonight... I also want to see how I, Tonya does tonight...I did watch those 3 movies.

The Los Angeles Police Department will deploy 500 officers to wrap the Dolby Theatre in multiple barriers of armed security for the 90th Academy Awards on Sunday night, an event at which several of Hollywood’s most celebrated stars will actively push for more gun control in America. “We have these concentric rings of security that start in the middle and radiate outward,” said LAPD Cmdr. Blake Chow, the man tasked with overseeing the massive operation. “We have a lot of officers in fixed posts and foot beats keeping an eye on the event.” Several celebrities plan to wear orange lapel...

The Oscars are just three days away and I’m beginning to sink into a mind-crushing stupor of dread at what lies ahead of us. Hollywood’s awards season has deteriorated into an endless round of virtue-signalling, hypocritical bullsh*t as the planet’s most infamously ill-behaved town pretends to be outraged by its own immorality. We’ve had the black dresses, the white ribbons, the furious red carpet rages and the weepy podium speeches. None of it has been about movies; all of it has been about actors competing with each other for the coveted title of Best Victim. Now they’re excitedly preparing for...