SUNDAY’S Oscarcast made some modest ratings gains over last year.

ABC’s coverage of the 81st Annual Academy Awards averaged 36.3 million viewers – up 4.3 million viewers from last year’s historically low viewership (32 million with host Jon Stewart in the midst of the writers’ strike).

As expected, Sunday’s telecast was the year’s most-watched entertainment telecast.

It also pulled in a whopping 24 million more viewers than last September’s Emmy Awards, and registered a surprising 22 percent spike in men 18-34 – traditionally the toughest demo to attract to this particular telecast.

According to ABC, 67.6 million people watched six-or-more minutes of Sunday’s show, hosted by Hugh Jackman.