OSCAR AWARDS CURTAIN COULD RISE ON SUNDAYS.

Byline: Reed Johnson Daily News Staff Writer

First, ``Monday Night Football'' swapped kickoff times. Now, another venerable TV tradition is flirting with change: The Oscars telecast is planning to move from Monday to Sunday nights.

``I think it's as close to being a sure thing as you can get,'' John Pavlik, director of communications for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said Tuesday. ``I don't think it's 100 percent (certain), but I'm planning on it.''

Pavlik said the switch could occur as early as March 1999, if the academy can work out details with ABC and the Music Center of Los Angeles County's Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, where the 71st Academy Awards show will be held.

The academy also is likely to bump up the telecast's start time from 6 p.m. to 5 or 5:30 p.m. PST, raising the probability that East Coast and Midwest viewers still will be tuned in when Billy Crystal signs off.

Ironically, this year's Oscars telecast - buoyed by the enormous popularity of ``Titanic,'' which won a record-tying 11 awards - was the most-watched in history, with many viewers across the country staying glued to their TV sets for the duration of the record 3-hour, 47-minute broadcast.

But in years lacking a blockbuster hit like ``Titanic,'' an earlier Sunday start time could help viewers east of the Rockies stay awake longer.

``One of the major problems with the length of the show is that people on the East Coast don't get to see the end of it,'' Pavlik said. ``So I would bet you all the money there is that it would start earlier.''

Pavlik cited two other motives behind the proposed switch. A Sunday broadcast would keep attendees from having to claw their way through L.A.'s weekday rush-hour traffic. It also would allow the Oscars to capitalize on the traditionally strong Sunday prime-time viewing slot.

Among industry observers, reactions to the proposed move were mixed.

Army Archerd, the legendary Variety columnist, applauded it.

``I think it'll make everyone happy to go,'' he said. ``It's always a terrible, terrible traffic jam going to the Shrine (Auditorium) or the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on a Monday. The traffic downtown is a nightmare.

``Everyone will be thrilled to pieces not to fight that traffic. I just think that it'll save a lot of taking of Rolaids.''

Others disagreed.

``I've talked to friends who are aficionados, and they're all a bit upset about it,'' said Damien Bona, co-author with Mason Wiley of ``Inside Oscar - The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards.''

Monday mystique

Bona, 43, said that for baby boomers like himself the traditional Monday night broadcast is part of the Oscars' mystique, like the disconcerting image of glamorous men and women in formal wear under a blazing sun.

``I can remember being excited, being a little boy, being allowed to stay up late on a school night,'' Bona said.

In fact, Oscar has been as fickle about favorite days as he is about favorite actresses.

From the first Oscar awards in 1929 through the early 1950s, the big bash traditionally took place on a Thursday. That changed in the late '50s, when theater owners - already anxious about losing audiences to the newfangled medium of television - lobbied Hollywood to hold its annual soiree on Monday, the night the fewest movie tickets were sold.

The Oscars were first held on a Monday in 1959. Since then, the ceremony also has taken place several times on Tuesdays and at least once on a Wednesday.

Even so, Monday night at the Oscars has become a revered L.A. ritual.

``It's weird because it's such a tradition,'' Sam Rubin, chief entertainment reporter at KTLA-TV (Channel 5), said of the proposal. ``For those of us who cover it, we're used to doing it this way. I think it's a decision that is strictly a television decision, obviously a television decision.

``I think in a way, in Los Angeles, in Hollywood, the current structure ensures a three- or four-day weekend. So many people take Monday off because of the Oscars and I don't know a single publicist or studio person who went to work (Tuesday), or they at least went in late. We'll have to adjust, but we will.''

According to the Nielsen overnight ratings based on 38 measured markets, the 70th Annual Academy Awards scored a 40.5 rating and a 60 share of the viewing audience Monday night on the ABC Television Network. ABC estimates that 87 million viewers in the United States saw some or all of the telecast.

The show recorded its highest average rating for the evening in Los Angeles, where it had a 51.7 rating (up 13 percent from 1997) and a 67 share. San Diego was second with a 47.1 rating and a 64 share. New York (45.8 rating, 65 share) was third. For the national ratings, a point represents 980,000 households or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 98 million TV homes. Share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

Overnight ratings

The broadcast's 40.5 rating and 60 share in Nielsen Media Research's overnight measurement from 38 major markets are expected to drop slightly when ratings for the full country become available. ABC estimates that the final numbers still will be 22 percent higher than last year, and the highest since 1983, when ``Gandhi'' won Best Picture. Since there are more television homes now than in 1983, the number of people watching is higher.

ABC said viewership across the country barely wavered even as the telecast stretched into its fourth hour. The network has broadcast the Oscars since 1976 and has TV rights through 2000.

``What I think the numbers for last night's broadcast show is that if you have a movie the public really loves or that if you have a couple of stars, they'll tune in,'' said Damien Bona. ``I think if you had last year's awards with `The English Patient,' I still don't think that would've gotten the ratings that this year's got.''

Daily News Staff Writer Keith Marder and wire services contributed to this story.