Oscars' Ratings Collapse; 'Another Round' Adaptation; 'Thrones' Prequel Starts Production; Turner's NHL Rights Power Play

[The Hollywood Reporter]( Today In Entertainment APRIL 27, 2021 What's news: Oscar ratings fall below 10 million as pandemic viewing patterns continue, frustration over Union Station closure, Hollywood reflects on an awards season unlike any other, Another Round picked up for American adaptation, WarnerMedia poised to snag new NHL rights, Michael Jackson's estate wins key court ruling. Plus: House of the Dragon officially starts production, and a review of The Handmaid's Tale season 4. --Alex Weprin [Oscars Ratings Collapse] Oscars Ratings Collapse ►The Oscars joined a slew of other awards shows in falling to all-time ratings lows. The 93rd Academy Awards drew 9.85 million viewers and a 1.9 rating among adults 18-49 on Sunday. That's a steep drop from last year's 23.64 million viewers and 5.3 in the key ad demographic — both of which were the previous all-time lows. --The 58 percent decline in total viewers is in keeping with those for the Grammys (which fell 51 percent), Golden Globes (62 percent) and SAG Awards (52 percent) in recent months. In the 18-49 demo, the Oscars were down by 64 percent, also in line with other awards shows. Despite the low numbers compared to past Oscars, Sunday's broadcast drew ABC's biggest total audience in months — an NBA Finals game in October came in at 8.89 million. [The story](. ►Hollywood reflects on an awards season unlike any other. Carey Mulligan, Chloé Zhao and more mourn the in-person fun but celebrate the accessibility of a virtual awards season. "There’s definitely an argument to say that if this film had come out at a normal time, in a conventional way, perhaps it might have reached people who had already given this sort of stuff quite a lot of thought and there would’ve been a risk of preaching to the choir a bit," Mulligan says. "But because we came out in the way we did and was sort of online in people’s homes, certainly my experience has been there’s a far broader audience than I imagine we might have had." [The story](. [Oscars Odds and Ends] Oscars Odds and Ends ►Oscars face criticism over Union Station closures: Commuters were vocal about the problems that Union Station detours and restrictions caused, especially for disabled riders: "The inferior service given to these folks is a disgrace." --"The Oscars were prioritized and transit riders got the short end of the stick... The images of people walking in that incredibly unpleasant and long tunnel and the guy in the wheelchair having to detour for a mile is all I needed to see to understand where the city’s priorities were on this." [The story](. +In Memoriam snubs: Naya Rivera and Jessica Walter were notably missing from the in memoriam portion of the 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, a snub that angered fans of the beloved late actresses. Adam Schlesinger was also notably absent. The musician, who died April 1, 2020, was even nominated for an Oscar for writing the title track of the Tom Hanks classic That Thing You Do!. [More](. +Fuzzy slippers and her mother's famous peach cobbler: How Andra Day celebrated after the Oscars. The nominated actress closed out her fairy tale run for The United States vs. Billie Holiday with an intimate affair at Spring Place, where she danced the night away on the members-only club's expansive patio. [More](. +Oscars history makers: Anthony Hopkins [became the oldest Best Actor winner ever]( at age 83 for his work in The Father... Hairstylists Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson [became the first Black winners]( of the Oscar in makeup and hairstyling for their work on Ma Rainey's Black Bottom... Minari star Yuh-Jung Youn won best supporting actress at the annual awards ceremony on Sunday night and, in doing so, [became the first Korean actor or actress]( to win an Oscar in the show's 93-year history... Pixar's jazz-infused Soul won the Academy Award for best animated feature, [delivering a record third Oscar]( in the category to director Pete Docter, and the first Oscar to producer Dana Murray... ►Oscar winner Another Round may get another round. Endeavor Content, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way and Brad Weston's Makeready have picked up the English-language remake rights to Thomas Vinterberg's Another Round (Druk), the Danish dramedy that won the Oscar for best international film on Sunday night. Endeavor and Makeready are set to finance the movie remake that potentially could star DiCaprio. The Hunt director Vinterberg's Danish dramedy stars Mads Mikkelsen as a day-drinking high school teacher who endures a mid-life crisis driven by alcohol abuse. [The story](. ►How Hollywood mingled amid virtual award shows. Guests at the MPSE Golden Reel Awards created their avatars as they entered the virtual event, Carolyn Giardina reports. The ”pre-show cocktail party" was held in a virtual ballroom (there was also a VIP room and sponsor signage throughout), before guests were asked to move their avatars to points in the space where they could "teleport" into a theater modeled after New York’s Manhattan Center. There, the show was streamed, with winners accepting remotely from their homes. [More](. [Turner's NHL Power Play] Turner's NHL Power Play ►The National Hockey League has completed its next TV rights package — and for the first time in 16 years, NBC Sports won't be a part of it. As first reported by [Sports Business Journal](, NBC pulled out of negotiations for the partial rights for the league's next TV deal. WarnerMedia's Turner Sports will pick up the remainder of the package, sharing rights with ESPN for seven seasons beginning with the 2021-22 campaign. [The story](. ►It's official: The Game of Thrones prequel series has started production. HBO announced on Twitter on Monday that House of the Dragon has begun filming in the U.K. and released a behind-the-scenes photo of a socially distanced table read. [More](. +The long-awaited third season of Master of None has a trailer, though the storyline is rather different than fans might expect. The trailer previews the five-episode season which chronicles the relationship between the show's breakout supporting character Denise (Lena Waithe) and her partner Alicia (Naomi Ackie) rather than focusing the romantic adventures of co-creator Aziz Ansari's character Dev Shah — a struggling actor who was the focal point of the first two seasons. [More](. ►Michael Jackson's estate has again convinced an L.A. judge that the late performer's businesses can't be sued by Wade Robson over alleged childhood sexual abuse — but the long-running fight may not be over as the choreographer's lawyer has already said they'll appealing the decision. --Robson sued in 2013 claiming Jackson sexually abused him for nearly a decade and his companies MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures facilitated the conduct. The estate, which controls the entities, argued it's entitled to summary judgment because the companies owed Robson no legal duty and had no ability to control Jackson's behavior. [The story](. +ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC battle "freemium." "This big copyright case will come down to a federal court's view of Locast, a digital streaming app that's free... sorta," Eriq Gardner writes. [The story](. ►TV review: Daniel Fienberg reviews season 4 of Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, writing that the show "is solidly entrenched in the things it does well — with Elisabeth Moss' performance as an unimpeachable centerpiece — and most frustrating in its bleak and repetitive rhythms. It becomes harder and harder to trust that even when big things happen on The Handmaid's Tale — and big things happen in these new episodes — the show will commit to follow-through." [The review](. ►After nearly a year of virtual film markets, what’s next for the format? Despite limitations of remote sales events, producers are warming to idea and agents are finding that video presentations can sometimes make for better pitches, writes Atwater Capital principal Meri Khananashvili. [The guest column](. In other news... --Bernie Kahn, a sitcom writer who contributed to episodes of such shows as Bewitched, Get Smart, Maude and Three's Company, [has died](. He was 90. --Magnolia Pictures [is expanding]( its movie streaming offerings to Canada with local partner Mongrel Media. --The NYU Girls, stars of the Clubhouse comedy show NYU Girls Roasting Tech Guys, have [signed with WME](. --Organizers of the recall effort against California Gov. Gavin Newsom [collected enough valid signatures]( to qualify for the ballot. What else we're reading... --Hello Sunshine, Netflix, Spotify, Sony, Disney, and AT&T are among the inaugural honorees of the Time 100 Most Infuential Companies list [[Time](] --"Rupert Murdoch scales back plan for News UK TV channel" [[The Guardian](] --"Fox News says Smartmatic lawsuit should be dismissed" [[The Hill](] --"Music is a hot new Wall Street asset" [[Axios](] Today's birthdays: Lizzo, 33, Cory Booker, 52, Sheena Easton, 62, William Moseley, 34, Patrick Stump, 37. 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