82nd annual academy awards

Last night's Oscars may have been a comedy of technical errors, but the returns are nothing to laugh at.

The broadcast of the 82nd Annual Academy Awards scored over 41.3 million sets of eyeballs Sunday night, the highest audience for an Oscar ceremony in five years.

It's even more impressive when you consider that New York, one of the biggest TV viewing markets in the country, couldn't watch the first bits of it because of the ABC/Cablevision blackout.

It's so like the movies; everything turned out all right in the end.

Maybe the expansion to 10 Best Picture nominees was a good idea after all.

According to the Live Feed, last night's telecast of the 82nd Annual Academy Awards drew 41.3 million viewers, up over four million viewers from last year. Even better news for ABC, it was the most-watched Oscars since 2005, when Chris Rock served as emcee.

This marks the second year in which the telecast has increased its viewership -- an encouraging sign, considering that the 2008 ceremony was the lowest-rated ever, with just 32 million viewers. Jon Stewart hosted.

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced last year that they would be expanding the Best Picture field to 10 films for their 82nd annual awards, the reaction was immediate, as pundits and cinephiles debated whether the move would dilute the importance of the awards. Slipping through the cracks, though, was how the change would affect the broadcast and the ceremony itself.

Well, now we know, because the ramifications were seen early and often throughout the show, which aired last night on ABC. While producer Adam Shankman wisely used the change as an excuse to emphasize the films and the performances themselves -- something viewers were clued into from the first moments, when this year's crop of Best Actor and Best Actress nominees gathered on the stage to kick off the ceremony -- the inclusion of extended clip packages for nominees and testimonials from fellow actors led not only to one of the longest broadcasts in recent awards show memory but also to the removal of several Oscar staples, including the Best Song performances.

The Oscar shows have long had a problem attracting the younger crowd, or at least the part that doesn't spend every waking moment organizing the AV club's equipment cabinet. So this year they have tried to "hip it up."

The Academy has hired DJ Joel Madden to serve as the ceremony's "house DJ" for the broadcast.

Producer Adam Shankman said he wanted the show to have more of a party atmosphere. Does that mean there will be a birthday clown and a "Pin the Tail on the Fellini" game too?

[via TV Tattle]

Aww! Given his harrowing performance in 'The Hurt Locker,' we wouldn't have pegged Best Actor nominee Jeremy Renner as a mama's boy, but he appears to be just that. On 'The Early Show' (weekdays, 7AM ET on CBS), Renner revealed that he'll be taking his mother to the 82nd Annual Academy Awards as his date.

Renner said that, when he broke the news to his mom, she immediately swore off breakfast waffles and pledged to start hitting the gym.

Watch the video after the jump.

On 'Good Morning America' (weekdays, 7AM ET on ABC), Gabourey Sidibe explained her reaction when she learned of her Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in 'Precious.'

"As soon as I heard, I jumped up and down and for some reason I kept screaming, 'I'm going to get a car! I'm going to get a car!' I don't know why, but I did," Sidibe said.

Watch the video after the jump.