By David Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Academy Awards viewership dipped to its lowest level since 2008 in a year where the movie industry's ability to reflect the nation's diversity was a central issue.
The Nielsen company said Monday preliminary estimates showed 34.3 million people watched Sunday night's telecast, where "Spotlight" won best picture. Last year's show was seen by 37.3 million people.
Since 1990, only two Academy Awards telecasts had fewer viewers: in 2008, when "No Country For Old Men" won best picture, and in 2004, when "Chicago" was honored. The peak came when "Titanic" won a boatload of awards in 1998 and 55 million people tuned in.
The paucity of minority nominees this year led to calls for a boycott among some black stars, including Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee. But Nielsen did not immediately have any ethnic breakdown of Oscar viewership. Generally, the popularity of movies being honored tends to be the biggest factor in whether the audience for the live telecast is up or down.
Rock, in his second time hosting, hardly stayed away from the diversity issue. He peppered the audience with his first three jokes on the topic within 25 seconds.
The most recent awards shows, the Golden Globes and Grammys, also saw ratings declines. The Globes, which honor film and television, were seen by 18.5 million people, down from 19.3 million in 2015. The Grammy telecast hit a seven-year low in viewership.
Many years, the Oscars are television's biggest event after the Super Bowl.
The final half hour of ABC's pre-show telecast was watched by 22.2 million people, down from 23.8 million last year, Nielsen said.
Twitter marked a milestone, however: Leonardo DiCaprio's best actor award generated 440,000 tweets in a minute, the fastest ever counted at the Academy Awards. The previous Twitter highlight came two years ago when Ellen DeGeneres made her star-studded selfie.
Sean “Diddy” Combs seeks bail, citing changed circumstances and new evidence
Sean "Diddy" Combs filed a new request for bail on Friday, saying changed circumstances, along with new evidence, mean the hip-hop mogul should be allowed to prepare for a May trial from outside jail.
Lawyers for Combs filed the request in Manhattan federal court, where his previous requests for bail have been rejected by two judges since his September arrest on racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees, while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
He has been awaiting a May 5 trial at a federal detention facility in Brooklyn.
In their new court filing, lawyers for Combs say they are proposing a "far more robust" bail package that would subject the entertainer to strict around-the-clock security monitoring and near-total restrictions on his ability to contact anyone but his lawyers. But the amount of money they attach to the package remains $50 million, as they proposed before.
They also cite new evidence that they say "makes clear that the government's case is thin." That evidence, the lawyers said, refutes the government's claim that a March 2016 video showing Combs physically assaulting his then-girlfriend occurred during a coerced "freak off," a sexually driven event described in the indictment against Combs.
They wrote that the encounter was instead "a minutes-long glimpse into a complex but decade-long consensual relationship" between Combs and his then-girlfriend.
The lawyers argued that the jail conditions Combs is experiencing at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn violate his constitutional... Read More