"12 Years a Slave" is getting a post-Oscar bump — for the book it was based on.
The 19th-century memoir by ex-slave Solomon Northup jumped from No. 326 on Amazon.com before Sunday night's Academy Awards ceremony to No. 19 on Monday afternoon.
The film was directed by Steve McQueen and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor (CHOO'-ih-tel EHJ'-ee-oh-fohr). It was among last year's most highly praised releases and won the Oscar for best picture. It was the first film directed by a black person to win for best picture.
The book and the movie tell of how the free-born black Northup was kidnapped and forced into slavery. Thanks to the movie's success, interest in the book has been revived and public high schools are starting to add it to course lists.
Mets’ victory over Brewers in NL Wild Card Series decider was ESPN’s most-watched game in 3 years
The New York Mets' 4-2 comeback victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday night in the deciding game of the NL Wild Card Series averaged 4,017,000 viewers on ESPN and streaming, making it ESPN's most-watched Major League Baseball game in three years.
ESPN and Nielsen reported Friday that the audience peaked at 5.75 million viewers during the ninth inning, when the Mets rallied from a 2-0 deficit to reach the divisional round for the first time since 2015, when they reached the World Series.
It was the biggest audience for a playoff game on ESPN since the 2021 AL wild-card game, when the Boston Red Sox's win over the New York Yankees averaged 7.7 million.
This year's nine MLB Wild Card Series games averaged 2.82 million on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, a 25% increase over last year and a 1% gain from 2022.
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