This year’s Academy Awards presentation seemed to drag on forever, but it wasn’t actually that long compared to past shows. The event last lasted 194 minutes, which is slightly longer than the average since the mid-1980s (183 minutes), but relatively short compared to the four-hour-plus show in 2002: 

About 39.3 million people tuned in for the show, a four-percent increase over the 2011. The best ratings since the mid-1980s came in 1998, when Titanic won best picture: 

Larger, interactive charts: Length, Viewers

Data source: Wikipedia | Download