The Oscars are on the rise yet again en route to its annual broadcast.
Late last month, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that it would pre-record select awards before the show and include their abbreviated versions in the broadcast.
Why?
The program is more than three hours long and this should help reduce that run time by a few minutes. Leads to industry outrage, exaggerated by the press and leads to at least a senior resignation letter.
The decision will no doubt alienate industry insiders, but will have a negligible impact on the show’s ratings. A few minutes of being cut out of an already awful broadcast won’t attract many returning viewers.
Interested to do?
Oscar producers fear another historic low is coming on March 27, and who can blame them? Previous years gloomy 10.4 million VND this figure represents a staggering 56% year-over-year decrease. The 2022 broadcast could yield similar numbers, if not worse, given the lack of blockbusters to award.
Only “Dune” can be considered a populist work and the film won a modest 108 million dollars at state theaters. For context, 2016’s “Ghostbusters” reboot generate 128 million dollars and cost Sony a report 70 million dollars.
The real story is that the show’s producers are blind, like it or otherwise, to the real problems plaguing the Oscars.
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Let’s start with a fact that no Oscar producer can fix. We see the stars in the morning, noon, and evening in our current culture. We watch their Instagram stories, read their Tweets, and see them on the couch late at night and elsewhere.
We can’t get rid of them, part of an emerging media landscape that didn’t exist 30 years ago. Or even 20. That means seeing them gather on Oscar night would be less appealing.
The appeal to the masses has followed the path of the 8-track tape
The movies themselves are part of the problem. Populism is no longer part of Oscar’s DNA. Even recent films like “Green Book” and “The King’s Speech” have proven both professionally choreographed and full of charisma.
Now, niche fairs like “Moonlight,” “The Shape of Water” and “Nomadland” are Oscar-standard bearers. Those movies make a fraction of what the average superhero movie makes in a weekend, which means most moviegoers have never seen them.
And never will.
The movies themselves have taken a heavy hit with the pandemic, as many have stopped offering streaming services instead of your local cinema. That cultural shift may be inevitable, but it does make the movies feel smaller, with less consequence.
And as a result, less deserving of a tony event like the Oscars.
The biggest threat facing the Oscars broadcast isn’t just being ignored by the Academy. The organization is cheering it on, unaware that it is crushing an organization that was once loved.
Wake up.
Hollywood Got Woke and Lost Its Soul
Woke is everywhere in Hollywood, sabotaging the Oscars ceremony in critical ways. Recently “Diversity” quest for Best Picture nominations made it official, but it was beside the point. La La Land had woken up long before that.
How does that affect the Oscars? Let’s count the ways:
- Awaken the monologues: Less funny, more signaling virtues
- Wake up acceptance speeches: Hand-waving lectures that alienated half the country
- Wake up the nominees: Progressive politics divides viewers and often leads to poor quality products
The latest clue that the Oscar producers have lost touch with moviegoers? The Academy has chosen a trio of “stars” to host this year’s gala – Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall. Two of the three are strongly partisan, telling the central audience that this year’s show will be as progressive as it has been in the past.
None of them are peaking in popularity at the moment. Schumer’s star power skyrocketed after she”Shipwreck“Became a hit. That was seven years ago.
Here’s how to get Oscar viewers back
Imagine if the Oscars invited Ricky Gervais, Dave Chappelle or Joe Rogan to host. Ratings will jump dramatically.
- Will Gervais repeat his 2020 Golden Globes in favor of the elite?
- Can Chappelle weather his controversial Netflix stand-up with his Oscar monologue?
- Does Rogan’s presence show that Hollywood is siding with Cancel Culture’s insults?
Choosing one of the three will bring excitement, even danger to the love affair. Instead, the Academy chose divisive characters without the necessary fan base to draw crowds. Love it or hate it Rogan, Chappelle or Gervais, you wouldn’t dare tell.
The biggest problem facing the Oscars today? Audiences have watched the recent Oscars ceremonies and left unimpressed. Can you blame them? Modern The Oscars are dull, godly and lasted for hours. Who wants to put up with that, especially when we’ve never had so many entertainment options before?
- TikTok
- YouTube
- More streaming channels than you can count
Team Oscar cannot accept the new reality. So it shuffles a few elements of the show in hopes of bringing audiences back above the fold, infuriating its core base in the process.
Now, ABC allegedly swears to completely cancel the broadcast If ratings don’t improve, we’ve entered a new Oscar phase.
Call it the Death Watch. How long will the show be a mainstream event broadcast on a broadcast channel?
