There had been fears that the Oscars would be cancelled

Commentators say the war in Iraq changed people's viewing habits on Oscar night.

ABC's three-and-a-half hour broadcast of the ceremony drew a household rating of 20.4 million, the lowest level since the first televised Oscar show in 1953.

"The war in Iraq dramatically changed people's viewing habits," said Larry Hyams, of ABC's research department.

While these figures are obviously disappointing, they were to be expected given what's going on in the world Jeff Lindsey, ABC

"Because people were preoccupied with the war, there was a huge amount of dial switching with viewers tuning in and out of the Oscars far more than usually, presumably to get news updates."

The annual show has not recorded an audience of less than 40 million since 1987.

The Academy Awards are usually the second most watched primetime broadcast after the annual Super Bowl American football gane.

But this year's Oscars show ranks just fifth behind shows such as the season premi�re of Friends and the reality TV show Joe Millionaire.

"While these numbers are obviously disappointing, they were to be expected given what's going on in the world," said ABC's Jeff Lindsey.

UK fans

But in the UK, a hard core of film fans sat up all night to watch the ceremony on BBC One and see musical Chicago triumph with six Academy Awards.

Some 700,000 viewers watched the first hour of the awards ceremony, until 0200 GMT, before slipping back over the next three hours to 300,000, according to unofficial overnight figures, which gave BBC One about 35% of night-time viewers.

Normally, BBC One's overnight audience fluctuates between 100-200,000.

Monday night's edited coverage drew an average audience of 1.9m, according to the same early figures.

The Oscars went ahead on Sunday despite more than a week of doubt over whether the ceremony would be delayed or cancelled because of the war.

In the end, organisers decided to go ahead with the ceremony but to tone down its usual glitz and galmour.

The pre-show festivities were curtailed, the red carpet was scrapped and many of the stars wore sombre colours.