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    Oscars Draw 18 Million Viewers, an 8% Drop

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    The show was broadcast on ABC, as it has been for decades, but also streamed live on Hulu, where there were glitches.The Academy Awards drew 18 million viewers on Sunday, ABC said, citing Nielsen data. That is an 8 percent drop from the 19.5 million who watched last year.The audience decline ends a three-year streak when Oscar ratings had been on the rise.The decline follows a trend among other award shows, which have seen their ratings growth come to a halt this year. The Grammy Awards attracted 15.4 million viewers last month, a 9 percent decline from the year before. The Golden Globes in January also saw a modest decline from last year.ABC said the Oscars had grown 3 percent among adults under the age of 50.ABC broadcast the Oscars on Sunday, as it has for decades, but the show also streamed live on Hulu, which helped boost viewership.The livestreaming experience, however, was far from perfect. There were glitches at the beginning of the show, and some subscribers did not see the finish, when their feed was abruptly cut off shortly before the best actress and best picture awards were given out.“Thank you for watching!” read the on-screen message. “This live event has now ended. You may exit playback and select something else to watch.”Still, even with this year’s decline in audience, the Oscars will be among the highest-rated entertainment shows of the year. And, perhaps more significant, the Oscars will go another year as the most-watched live awards show, continuing to best the Grammys.The show, which was hosted by Conan O’Brien, received mostly good reviews. Vanity Fair said it was “the best ceremony in years,” although Variety argued that “the telecast felt too small for Hollywood’s biggest night.”The ceremony was also long: It clocked in at nearly four hours.Sunday’s Oscars came nowhere close to the box office firepower of last year’s telecast, which was fueled by “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie.” “Anora” took home best picture on Sunday night, one of its five Oscar wins. But with that win, “Anora” secured a record for having the lowest domestic ticket sales in best picture history, outside of the pandemic. More

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      Inside the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscars Party

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      Zoe Saldaña stood in the middle of Vanity Fair’s Oscars after-party Sunday night, holding an In-N-Out burger in one hand and her best supporting actress statuette in the other.She hugged Cynthia Erivo twice and then grinned for a selfie with Gayle King. Queen Latifah applauded as she twirled at the center of a dance circle.If Adrien Brody had similar moves, he kept them to himself. He brought along his Oscar for best actor and his parents, who were asked over and over about how proud they must be of their son.“We’re so ashamed,” his father, Elliot Brody, deadpanned.At Vanity Fair’s annual post-Oscars party, the ceremony’s victors and also-rans streamed in one after another for a stiff drink or a victory lap.Kim Kardashian, left, and Helena ChristensenParis HiltonHalle BerryDanielle Brooks, left, and Cynthia ErivoWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Conan O’Brien’s Oscars Monologue: Little Roasting, No Politics, Very Silly

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      Conan O’Brien brought the bizarre back to Oscar hosting.In a studiously silly (and sniffily) performance that began with the gross-out humor of his emerging out of the body of Demi Moore from “The Substance,” O’Brien evoked some of his delightfully experimental bits from his old late-night show.For winners whose speeches go on too long, he promised to cut to a shot of a game John Lithgow “looking slightly disappointed.” He continued a fun Adam Sandler bit from the Golden Globe Awards. And in a concise joke delivered deftly, he said: “Bob Dylan wanted to be here, but not that badly.”The whole thing had a light touch: little roasting and no politics. The edgiest joke might have been when he promised that no A.I. was used in making the Oscars, before fessing up: “We used child labor.” But you got the sense this punchline mattered less than his follow-up, when Conan added out of nowhere: “We lost little Billy.” Not since David Letterman, the most underrated Oscar host of the modern era, has a monologue been this loopy. More

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      Conan O’Brien Pokes Fun at Top Movies and Stars in Oscars Monologue

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      Conan O’Brien was literally born to host the Oscars.After a pretaped sketch on Sunday in which O’Brien emerged out of the back of Demi Moore, the star of “The Substance,” before turning around to dig into her spine cavern for a lost shoe, the comedian broke into his monologue.He poked fun at many of the show’s nominees, and himself, starting with a list of recent films — “A Complete Unknown,” “A Real Pain,” “Nosferatu” — that he joked he was called on the red carpet. “I think two were fair,” he said.The monologue also razzed Netflix’s 18 nominations (and price increases), the length of “The Brutalist” and the recent controversy about “Emilia Pérez” actress Karla Sofia Gascón’s offensive social media posts.“Little fact for you: ‘Anora’ uses the F-word 479 times,” he said. “That’s three more than the record set by Karla Sofia Gascón’s publicist.”O’Brien also called out best actor nominee Timothée Chalamet’s portrayal of the musician Bob Dylan from the stage, and the absence of Dylan himself: “Bob Dylan wanted to be here tonight, but not that badly.”He also riffed on the recent news that Amazon has taken control of the James Bond franchise, joking that it had found its next 007: Amazon’s senior vice president of global affairs, Steve Belsky. “Ladies love him,” O’Brien said. (According to an Amazon corporate website, the real senior vice president and chief of global affairs is David A. Zapolsky.)After a joke about Adam Sandler’s fashion sense, O’Brien suddenly changed tone to address the devastation of the wildfires in Los Angeles, and how an awards show can seem self-indulgent if that context was not addressed. He praised the craftspeople and others behind the camera who devoted their life to film, and how the ceremony was to celebrate their work too.“Even in the face of terrible wildfires and divisive politics, the work, which is what this is about, the work continues,” he said. “For years to come through trauma, and joy, this seemingly absurd ritual is going to be here.”“I will not,” he continued. “I’m leaving Hollywood to run a bed-and-breakfast in Orlando. And I’d like to see you there.”O’Brien closed his monologue by promising not to waste time, before breaking into a musical number about how he would not waste time, complete with a dancing Deadpool and the sandworm from “Dune: Part Two” playing “Chopsticks” on a piano.“Well, we’re 40 minutes over,” O’Brien joked. More

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      Conan O’Brien Doesn’t Matter

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      After hosting talk shows for nearly three decades, Conan O’Brien has come to believe that longevity is overrated. The first time he made this point to me was in April at a restaurant in New York, when he proposed that all statues and monuments should be made with durable soap that dissolves in seven years. One month later, in his office in Los Angeles, down the hall from his podcast studio, he went further, declaring himself anti-graveyard.Asked if this means he wants to be cremated, O’Brien responded: “I want to be left in a ditch and found by a jogger.” Taking up space in a cemetery seems selfish to him. “I say this in a positive way,” he added, leaning forward and shifting to a less jokey tone. “We don’t matter.”Since leaving late-night television in 2021, Conan O’Brien, 61, has become more reflective about life (and death), given to philosophical flights of fancy that he compulsively alternates with comic tangents. O’Brien famously champions the intersection between smart and stupid, but in conversation, what stands out is how quickly he moves between light and heavy. In one of several interviews, I asked him if he was happier now than when he was on television and his response was to question happiness itself. “At best it’s a fleeting moment after a rainstorm when the sun’s coming out,” he said. “Being contented comes in little moments, here and there.”The only thing trickier than being a late-night talk show host is being a former one. Some relapse (Jon Stewart). A few vanish (Johnny Carson, Craig Kilborn). Most enter a more modest era (David Letterman, Jay Leno). Since he started writing for “Saturday Night Live” in the 1980s, Conan O’Brien has built one of the most consequential careers in comedy. And while his late-night tenure is beloved by comedy nerds, helping define a sensibility for a generation of comedians like Bill Hader, Eric André and Nikki Glaser, his postshow work may turn out to be more impressive.It helps that his brand of joyfully goofy absurdity ages well. Stewart may have repeatedly beaten him out for Emmys during the George W. Bush years, but jokes about the Iraq War have a shorter shelf life than the masturbating bear, a recurring character on O’Brien’s late-night show that is exactly what it sounds like. His reputation has grown as new generations have discovered his work online.The other reason O’Brien has done well since leaving “Conan,” his final late-night show (after “Late Night” and “The Tonight Show”), is that he’s always been excited by and open to experimentation. “I enjoyed playing with that form,” he said of the talk show. “The stuff I’m really interested in, there’s so many opportunities to do it now. ‘Hot Ones’ is proof.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More