The TV audience of the ABC broadcasting of the Oscars ceremony went down last Sunday in comparison to last year. They said that 38.8 million people watched it this year while 42.1 watched it last year..

In 2003, only 33 million Americans enjoyed the long show that happened to take place only three days after the invasion of Iraq by “the axis of Good.”

Apparently, except for the Superbowl, the traditional great American shows of today are watched less and less. The press wire Agence France Press said that a month ago, the Grammys had their worst audience ever with only 17 million viewers on CBS; a 10% reduction from last year. In the meantime, Fox’s American Idol has them beat.

Do people still care about the Oscars? Of course they do, but the ceremony clocking in at more than three hours is very hard to watch. They might prefer checking the results on the internet while continuing what they were doing.

However, there were two great things that needed to be seen live and not in repeat. George Clooney’s speech about Academy Awards virtues and Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin's hilarious performance needed to be seen live, because of their contrast with the three and a half hour boring and politically correct show.

Not to be missed was also yesterday’s Tonight Show with Jay Leno and his comments on Crash’s victory: “I am kind of sad for Brokeback Mountain. They made that great movie about intolerance and they get screwed by a great movie about racism… The two movies had a theme in common though, whether you are a driver in L.A. or a cowboy in Montana, you never know who is coming behind you.”