Intro for March 5, 2025

Dear Gossips,  

Follow-ups are important, especially in gossip. Yesterday in this space I mentioned that early Oscar ratings showed a slight decrease in overall viewership but increases in key demographics, specifically with a younger audience. 

Updated ratings, though, have revealed that more people watched the Oscars this year than last year and the highest in five years. Per The Hollywood Reporter:

“The final figure is a sizable adjustment up from the initially reported 18.07 million viewers, and it’s attributable largely to viewing on digital devices — i.e., mobile phones and tablets — that isn’t captured in Nielsen’s fast national reporting. The 19.69 million viewers is about 200,000 more than the 19.49 million for the 2024 Oscars and is the largest audience in five years. The 2020 Oscars, the final awards of the pre-pandemic era, drew 23.64 million viewers.”

This is great news for the Academy and probably confirms for them that they made the right decision with how they produced the show and also who they invited to participate in the show and on the red carpet. But they had help, right? Wicked for sure helped. Among all Best Picture nominees, Wicked’s box office was the biggest, and by now we all know how hard Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande had been working to keep Wicked in the conversation, to stay popping on social media. What would this award season have been without Wicked? I don’t even want to think about it. But I am interested to see how Wicked can sustain its interest since part two is coming out in just six months and, you would think, could be contending again at the Oscars. 

So the Academy wins with these Oscar numbers but so does Conan O’Brien! The general consensus is that Conan did a great job making this show his own and based on his performance, of course they should ask him to return. But Jimmy Kimmel had the best joke about how Conan will be rewarded: 

“Conan O’Brien did a great job as host of the Oscars. Conan did such a good job, the Oscars announced that next year they’re giving it to Jay Leno to host.”

Let’s not worry about this for another eight months. Instead, let’s appreciate Conan’s appreciation for his wife, Liza, because she was the one who had to live with whatever anxiety and stress as he prepared for this moment. 

Conan’s thank you post for Liza over on Twitter also included style credits, his and hers. Liza wore Dries Van Noten and Dior on Oscar night. I also really enjoy what Conan’s been sharing from behind-the-scenes. In this video, there’s a brief shot of him hyping himself up right before he’s about to take the stage. 

My favourite though is this bit with his assistant, David Hopping:

As Sarah has said many times, Conan is good to people. There have never been any bad boss stories about Conan and there probably never will be. You might be asking…but what about Sona? Sona Movsesian is now part of his podcast and of course she’s around and she was there on Oscar night: 

Why wasn’t she part of the show? She told Vulture that:

“I think Conan did a great job. But he was clearly missing a very important element and I think that element is a loud Armenian with frizzy hair.” 

Sona lost her home in the fire. So when Conan honoured the first responders during the show and talked about how many people in LA had been affected by the disaster, it was from the perspective of having someone very close to him experience that impact. Somehow, though, they turned it into comedy, as they do, and made us cry. 

They say hosting the Oscars is a thankless job, and almost everyone comes out of it limping. So it’s pretty f-cking wonderful that a person like Conan, who is known for his goodness, and is surrounded by good people, emerged from the hellfire that can be the Oscars not just intact, but maybe even on a high? 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey