Oscar Ratings Are Down from Last Year 9.33K Brian Moylan 02/28/11 12:32PM Filed to: Television Television The Oscars Oscars Academy Awards Ratings James Franco Tweetg Tweetd Preliminary ratings for last night's Oscar broadcast indicates it was down 7% from last year's audience of 41.7 million viewers. Several awards shows recently saw an uptick in ratings but it appears the Oscars are immune. Let's blame James Franco.