Snubbing Oscar's Farrah Snub?

Prime-time ratings for Academy telecast bottomed out during Fawcett-less "In Memoriam" half-hour; overall show was huge

Why didn't Oscar get away with its Farrah Fawcett snub? Why did Jason Mesnick get away with his Melissa Rycroft snub? And why is NBC getting away with its Conan O'Brien snub?

The answers—and more questions about Miley Cyrus, The Office and more—in the latest TV ratings quiz:

1. How did Oscar pay for leaving Fawcett out of its "In Memoriam" rundown? The telecast's prime-time viewership bottomed out in the 10:30 p.m. (ET) half-hour that featured the Fawcett-less tribute package.

2. How didn't Oscar pay? In the case of Sunday's show, "bottomed out" equaled about 35 million people. The telecast was indisputably huge. Also, awards-show audiences tend to start big and get smaller, regardless of who is or isn't being snubbed.

3. How can you tell if an Oscar telecast is going to be huge? So goes the red carpet shows, so goes the big show. True to form, ABC's prime-time preshow scored its biggest audience in three years (the last time the Oscars broke 40 million viewers), as did E!'s Live From the Red Carpet, while Barbara Walters' final interview special, aired prior to the Oscars in most time zones, hit an eight-year high. The Oscar glow was so bright, Jimmy Kimmel's annual postshow special posted its best numbers ever. 

4. True or false: You shunned Mesnick for dumping Rycroft on TV? If you are of the demographic that's made The Bachelor a hit, the answer is false. Last night's two-hour special, The Bachelor: Jason and Molly's Wedding, won its time slot among women aged 18-34. Overall, the show averaged 9.3 million die-hard romantics.

5. True or false: You shunned NBC for dumping O'Brien? False. Jay Leno beat David Letterman every night last week. At 10 p.m., NBC got a boost from Parenthood, Law & Order: SVU, original-recipe Law & Order, The Marriage Ref and even Dateline in Leno's vacated prime-time slots. 

6. True or false: NBC is out of the woods? False. Premiere weeks are premiere weeks: big. It's what comes after that ultimately makes or breaks a network, or a show. Last night, Leno survived his first "after" test, but his lead shrunk considerably in the overnight numbers. In prime time, Law & Order looked at lot like Leno at 10 p.m.: not good.

7.  If you're an adult under age 35, last week you wanted to know what four things? (1) Who won the Oscars; (2) how the girls sang on Wednesday's American Idol; (3) how the boys sang on Tuesday's American Idol; and (4) how the baby thing worked out for Pam and Jim on The Office. Overall, the NBC comedy averaged 9 million viewers.

8. Why did Miley Cyrus have a way better Sunday than you? When she wasn't presenting at the Oscars, she was walking off with the week's biggest cable audience (6.3 million) for an all-new Hannah Montana. 

9. Real Housewives of Orange County or Real Housewives of New York City? The season finale of Orange County outdrew the season premiere of NYC 2.5 million to 2 million, but both shows set series records.

Here's a look at the top 10 broadcast network shows for the week ended Sunday, per Nielsen Media Research:

1. 82nd Annual Academy Awards, 41.7 million
2. Oscar's Red Carpet 2010, 25.3 million
3. American Idol (Wednesday), 23.6 million
4. American Idol (Tuesday), 23.5 million
5. NCIS, 19.6 million
6. American Idol (Thursday), 19.4 million
7. Two and a Half Men, 16.9 million
8. The Big Bang Theory, 15.7 million
9. CSI, 15.6 million
10. The Bachelor, 15.2 million