Each year the claim is made that the annual Oscar telecast is watched by billions of people worldwide. Is it true? Not even close. “These numbers are hopelessly exaggerated, usually the product of adding together each broadcast-licensed nation’s entire population, rather than an estimated, Nielsen-like figure approximating actual viewers. Even if the Academy Awards were to be broadcast in China and India – which, as of press time, they were not to be this year – it certainly would not mean that every citizen from Bombay to Beijing would be able to tune in the program. Or even give a crap.” – Salon 03/22/00