News and Recap
The ceremony was originally intended to be an especially festive celebration of the ceremony's 75th anniversary. However, it was muted five days before the show by the onset of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which coincided almost exactly with the ceremony. As a result, the hype and tone of the show were scaled back, and some Award winners (notably Michael Moore) took the opportunity to voice their opposition to the invasion.
The ceremony was watched by 33.04 million people with 20.58% of households watching according to Nielsen ratings. For the second time in the telecast's history, it fell second place to a different program (American Idol) for the week. It remained the least watched and lowest rated telecast (until 2008) since ratings were recorded beginning in 1967 and audience size was measured since 1974.
Read more about this topic: 75th Academy Awards
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