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Can Hugh Jackman and Oscar attract more viewers?

As movie lovers make their last-minute predictions about who will win what at the Academy Awards on Feb. 22 — the smart money is on “Slumdog Millionaire,” but who knows? — it’s easy to forget that the Oscar ceremony isn’t just a recognition of the best in film. It’s also a television show.

One of the biggest of the year, in fact, though its ratings have been steadily declining. Last year’s broadcast was the lowest-rated ever, in fact, with fewer than 32 million viewers.

Some believe the fall off the ratings cliff is due to smaller, more independent-minded films getting nominated. It’s a great thing for movies, but for TV? Not so much.

Indeed, the biggest audience ever — more than 57 million viewers — was for the 1998 broadcast. What’s significant about that? It was the year of “Titanic,” the highest-grossing movie of all time.

Academy members killed any chance of a repeat performance by failing to nominate “The Dark Knight” as best picture. Frankly, it’s something they should have done anyway, ratings notwithstanding. It’s a better film than “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” or “The Reader,” but that’s another rant. Whatever the case, none of the best-picture nominees is rewriting the ticket-sales record books.

As you might guess, producers for the show aren’t thrilled by its fading popularity. So this year they’ve promised changes, starting with hiring Hugh Jackman as host.

Eh. Handsome devil, fine actor, all that. But with Steve Martin, Jon Stewart, Chris Rock and especially Ricky Gervais available for a tux fitting, is he really the best choice? (Actually, Gervais is, but he turned down the gig.)

Jackman said that there will be singing and dancing — joy — but you have to figure that, since he’s not a comedian, his introduction will be light on the jokes.

Too bad. A little deflating of the massive egos squeezed into the room is always welcome — by TV viewers, at least, if not the people in the room itself. But Jackman is an affable sort, so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. And his song-and-dance act has to be better than the once-cool-but-now-tired version Billy Crystal trots out when he hosts.

Beyond that, what’s new?

Who knows? We’ll just have to take the producers at their word because they’re keeping the other changes under wraps.

For instance, they won’t say who the presenters are. This is in the hopes that you, Mr. or Ms. Casual Movie Fan, will be enticed to tune in on the chance that, say, maybe Jack Nicholson will give out something. Or maybe Steve Guttenberg. (No accounting for tastes.)

Uh, no. People tune in to see who wins, plain and simple. And, with the exception of close friends and relatives of those nominated, they don’t tune in for the lesser categories either.

Does that mean those should be excised from the broadcast? Not all of them, no. But in the spirit of the pathetic economy, we all need to start trimming. Perhaps Oscar can set an example. Here’s a start: best screenplay? Keep it. Costume design? Maybe next year. Drastic measures, yes. But we should all pitch in to keep the telecast under three hours.

Failing that — and it’s unlikely it’ll ever happen, really, no matter what changes are afoot — the one thing the producers could do to make the show more watchable would be to pace it differently. Instead of opening up with a couple of awards (usually best supporting actress and best supporting actor) and then ... nothing of note for a couple of hours, sprinkle them throughout.

Now the biggest awards are jammed into the last few minutes, diluting the drama and virtually ensuring that the winners’ speeches will be interrupted by the orchestra.

Here’s hoping that, like everything else in life these days, Oscar will go lean and mean. You want to try to hide the identity of the presenters? Fine. Whatever. But whatever you do, make it quick. Maybe more people will watch this year.

And if word gets out to those who don’t, maybe more will watch next year, too.