A total of 41.5 million viewers watched the "Million Dollar Baby" taking the Oscar for best picture and Chris Rock making cautious jokes about fellow actors.

Oscar audience slipped 2 million compared to the last year's results, when "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" stole the Oscars, according to Nielsen Media Research.

That’s a sad result for ABC, whose preliminary figures released earlier Monday from the top 56 markets were the strongest they were in five years.

However, Oscar ratings were up from last year among viewers aged 18 to 34 — a prime target for the advertisers who pay millions of dollars for time on what is traditionally the year's highest-rated program after the Super Bowl. May experts attribute this boost in young viewership to Chris Rock who attracted plenty of pre-Oscars publicity, including speculation about whether he would make jokes at the expense of President Bush or even curse.

Canadian viewers didn’t get a chance to watch Academy Awards this year at all. The only Red Carpet “live” report that local stations could afford actually began after the Oscar ceremony was over. 

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