Remember "By a nose, Nicole Kidman"?

This Time article is about how critics do themselves no favor by picking little-known films for award nominations over extremely popular films. Not a groundbreaking subject, but this paragraph stood out to me:

You might think the highest-rated Oscar telecasts are in years when there's a close contest in the major categories, as with Crash and Brokeback Mountain two years. Nuh-uh. It's the runaway years, when billion-dollar blockbusters like Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King get what are essentially People's Choice awards, and its makers wear a path in the rug from their seats to the stage. Moviegoers who are TV viewers don't want horse races; they want coronations -- validations that somebody in Hollywood is ready to honor the movies they love.

I believe it, but I don't relate. I’m in the minority that prefers "horse races," even when I haven't seen the films yet. Since 1995, the only Academy Awards show I missed was in 2004, the one in which TRotK won, and I don't particularly regret it.

So now I want to know if any of my readers are with me on this. And if you never watch the Oscars, you don't have to say anything.