It was blasted by some critics as one of the worst endings to a television show ever. But in the hours after the widely-panned conclusion to this year’s Oscars, one prominent executive is defending the show’s abrupt, anticlimactic finish.

In an interview with Variety, Rob Mills — the executive VP of unscripted and alternative entertainment at Walt Disney Television — stood behind the decision to present the Best Actor award last, in a departure from Oscar tradition which dictates that Best Picture closes out the evening. The gambit appears to have failed spectacularly — as the late Chadwick Boseman, a sentimental thought by many to be a lock to win, ended up getting edged out of the honor by Anthony Hopkins, who was not even on hand to accept. But Mills said the move was worth it, despite the surprising result.

“It was not meant to end on somebody who was not present,” Mills said. “It was a calculated risk, that I think still paid off because everybody was talking about it.”

Mills added, “Some people were upset, some people loved it and that was really the point that there was no apathy.”

Counter to Mills’s claim, a search of Twitter in the moments after the broadcast turned up very few people who approved of the show’s ending. Worse yet for the ABC executive and the network at large, the ratings for Sunday night’s telecast revealed quite a bit of viewer apathy — as fewer than 10 million people watched overall, shattering the previous record low by nearly 60 percent.

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