• by Wayne Friedman , February 27, 2007

Seems like movie aficionados like longer--not shorter--Oscar broadcasts.

This year's longer Academy Awards on ABC pulled in a preliminary 27.7 rating/42 share--slightly up versus its 27.1/40 performance a year ago, when Jon Stewart hosted. Sunday's version ran about 45 minutes longer, at about 3 hours and 45 minutes.

Still, the event was down 8% against 2005's 30.1/43 and 7% off 2004's 29.8/43. On the plus side, the year's event--hosted by Ellen DeGeneres--was about 9% better than 2003's 25.5/37, when the awards hit a record low rating.

ABC also grabbed a 6.0 rating for the Barbara Walters' Oscars special, and a 12.3 for the Oscar pre-show at 8 p.m.

The slight uptick could have been due to the marketing and publicity around director Martin Scorsese's attempt to finally win an Oscar after six attempts. His movie "The Departed" also won the best picture award--a film more widely distributed than last year's winner, "Crash." Last year's ratings were the second-smallest audience since 1988.

Not surprisingly, ABC controlled the night among 18-49 viewers, averaging an 11.7/27. Fox was a distant second at 4.1/9; then CBS at 2.1/5. NBC was fourth at 1.6/4, Univision was at 1.5/3 and CW brought up the rear with an 0.8/2.

Fox's numbers probably wouldn't have been as big if not for the end of a NASCAR race that, along with "King of the Hill" in the 7 p.m. hour, posted a 4.9 rating. Apart from ABC's big efforts, Fox earned a night of rest--with "The Simpsons" getting a 3.6 and "Family Guy" grabbing a 3.8.

CBS' best showing was at 8 p.m. with a 2.9 for "Amazing Race." NBC had its best shot at 10 p.m. for a new episode of "Crossing Jordan." Univision posted two 1.7 ratings, for two episodes of "Bailando por la Boda de Mis Suenos." CW got a 1.0 for an hour of "Reba" repeats at 7 p.m.