laurence mark

Well, it looks like rejiggering the format of the Oscar telecast paid off; ratings for the 81st annual back-patting orgy were up 13% from last year's record-low ratings. Maybe it was the "faster-paced" ceremony, or maybe it was just that there were some intriguing storylines (Slumdog, Heath Ledger, what kind of nutty stuff would Mickey Rourke have said if he won... that kind of stuff). Or it could have been a matter of more people being at home to watch because, uh, they don't have the money to do anything else. But at least the ratings are back to being semi-respectable.

One interesting aspect to these ratings numbers, though, was brought up by Newsday's Neil Best: the total number of female viewers for the Super Bowl (38.3 million) surpassed the entire audience for the Oscars (36.3 million). So, despite the conventional wisdom, it looks like the "Super Bowl for women" is actually... the Super Bowl.

At the very least, the ratings will probably earn Hugh Jackman and producers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark a return engagement. Now if they can just get this thing under three hours, they're all set.