Why is the viewership for the Oscars getting lower? Is the selection of the host one reason?

B/c people are lil by lil getting fed up with the media trying to force these celebrities down our throats as if they have the power to part the Pacific Ocean like Moses parted the Red sea.

Yes and yes. Its really hard to take Jon Stewart in small doses let alone as a host for the Oscars. The Red Carpet scene is always a joke to me. The questions asked by some of the interviewers on the Red Carpet (like ryan Seacrest) are usually really dumb. As the poster above me said, there are just much better things to do.

I think the selection of the host is a huge reason, but the ratings keeping get lower and lower every year for several other reasons:

It's too long-last night's ceremony was about 3.5 hours and that's typical.

It seems too much-it feels like more than just the ceremony when all the pre and post shows are thrown in.

It's about movies that many don't care for-because Wedding Crashers would never have won an Oscar.

It's International-and places such as Europe and Asia have better taste and more culture overall than Americans and have a say as well.

I just think Hollywood tries too hard these days. All these bizarre storylines that are so out of the ordinary that you wonder how some of the movies even get nominated in the first place. They should be like the Grammy's and give everyone a chance to see each movie before the awards season starts. I think an album has to be out 6 months to year before it's nominated. And that's what the Oscars should do. Sweeney Todd has been out for how long and is nominated for an Oscar? Are you kidding? Not saying it's a bad movie but give me a break! And what about these commercial advertisements for movies that say "best movie of the year" before it even hits theaters? That's crazy to me. So because some critics who get early screenings of movies they get to decide what's good or not? Let us all get to see it together. I mean, some critics get to see these films months in advance. It's "best film in a long time" commercials like those that make me not want to see the movies. Just too much hype. I'd like to make up my own mind before some overpaid guy with a bad hair piece tells me what's good.

It seems lately, that people are more excited about Barbara Walter's Oscar special than they do about the award show itself.

And many people don't want to sit through a 3 hour show, most of us can't even sit through a 3 hour movie! It seems they add new Oscar nominations every year. Like "best art direction" "best use of lighting" and crap that none of us care about. Tell us who won best actor, best actress, best supporting actor and actress, best director, and screenplay. That's all! That's all we care about! And besides, why sit through all that when we'll find out the next day all that we wanted to know?

This year's ratings were down because many of the heavy favorites were foreigners and because most of "average" America hadn't seen any of the nominated movies. "Juno" earned more at the box office than the other 4 movies combined. And I'll bet that a large majority of people haven't even seen that movie.

The Oscars get higher ratings when movies with mass appeal are up for major awards. Some of the highest ratings have come in the years that "Forrest Gump", "Titanic", "Lord of the Rings" and "Gladiator" have won. The same goes for the favored actors and actresses. When Tom Hanks, Russell Crowe or Julia Roberts is a favorite, more people watch. But who were the favorites this year? Julie Christie, in a movie no one saw. Daniel Day Lewis, in a movie that still hasn't come to most American cities. And then to have Christie be upset by some French actress in a French movie that NO ONE has seen in the theaters, why would anybody watch.

To think that it has to do with Jon Stewart is completely off base. He is the most well received host since Billy Crystal and will have the job as long as he wants.

I've never watched the Oscars until last night. I was hoping to see Sweeny Todd take some awards...

Yeah John Stewart has a couple good one-liners, but after a while, he gets boring.

I think the only people who typically watch the Oscars are

women looking at the clothing and designer duds

Personally, I love Jon Stewart.. if I ever watched the Oscars, it would probably be this year.

...however, I (and many other people) just have other things they like to do now. With the advent of this here internet thing and the unstoppable popularity of video games, TV viewers are getting sparser across the board; it's not just an Oscars thing. I believe the Superbowl this year also had one of its poorest showings ever. People just aren't that into it when they could be playing games with their friends instead.

Because award shows are only for the vain and to keep up the self-esteem of the actors. There's too many award shows now. Every corporation has a show these days...Blockbuster, Nickelodeon, MTV, etc. and then there's the other countries versions of the same thing. It's all redundant, irrelevant and boring.

Everyone is bored with it but if they had an actually good host they might get some better ratings. And the movies for that year have to be good. Like people will watch just to see what there favorite movie got. I only watched to see how Juno did.

Hollywood is mostly making crap for movies AND, the whole Oscars thing is fixed anyway.