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It's all about Oscar

Sunday's Oscar telecast just wouldn't feel the same without the "Barbara Walters Oscar Special," which airs an hour ahead of the big event at 7 p.m. on ABC.

For the 26th straight year, Babs will chew the fat with a handful of this year's nominees, and she'll also interview comic Ellen DeGeneres, who is serving as host of the 79th annual ceremony.

The interview subjects and their revelations:

• Best supporting actress nominee Jennifer Hudson, the former "American Idol" finalist who was voted off the Fox TV hit, speaks candidly about the show. The Chicago native and powerhouse vocalist — who, ironically, was born with underdeveloped lungs, according to a story in the March issue of Essence magazine — tells Miss Walters that if she had won "Idol," she probably would have missed out on the role of Effie White in "Dreamgirls."

• Dame Helen Mirren, a one-time sex symbol known for disrobing on camera (most recently as Cuba Gooding Jr.'s stepmother and older lover in "Shadowboxer"), discusses the risks she took portraying Elizabeth II in "The Queen."

• And in a rare and hilarious interview, Eddie Murphy describes the risks he took in acting, singing and dancing in "Dreamgirls" and what winning an Academy Award would mean to him.

Always a winner

Before we learn who'll take home Oscar gold, cable's Turner Classic Movies travels back in time with a look at a few best picture winners from years past. Tonight's lineup:

• The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) — Betty Hutton, Charlton Heston, James Stewart star in the great Cecil B. DeMille's tale of a circus ringmaster and an egotistical trapeze artist who vie for the love of a pretty acrobat. (8 p.m.)