LOS ANGLES, March 8 (Xinhua) -- An average of 41.3 million people in America watched the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony held on Sunday night at Kodak Theater, a 14-percent increase from last year's telecast and the highest in five years, according to figures released on Monday.

Audience watching Sunday night's telecast was the largest for any entertainment program since the 2005 Oscars, which averaged 42. 14 million viewers, according to the Nielsen Co.. Seventy million viewers watched at least six minutes of ABC's coverage of the ceremony co-hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.

Kathryn Bigelow (C), Mark Boal (L) and Greg Shapiro display their trophies after winning the Best Picture of the 82nd Academy Awards for "The Hurt Locker" at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, California, the United States, March 7, 2010

Before the recent increase, viewership for awards shows had generally dropped because proliferation of such shows made each one less unique. Like all forms of television programming, they are also impacted by growing competition from such leisure activities as the Internet, video games, home video and watching programming on video recorders.