There’s been a lot of discussion about who might be the host of this year’s Academy Awards broadcast after Kevin Hart was forced to step down when some old controversial tweets were discovered (although he is still apparently a possibility). While interesting, and perhaps newsworthy, whoever the host turns out to be will have little to do with whether the show is successful either from an aesthetic or ratings standpoint (unless they bring back Bob Hope or Johnny Carson).
The problem is with the structure of the show itself – not who presents the opening sequence and introduces subsequent sections of the telecast.
I look forward to watching the Academy Awards every year, and every year I ask myself the same question: “Is it always this boring?” I invariably find myself answering, “yes.” And every year I forget the previous year’s telecast and look forward to the show all over again.
Some relatively simple changes, however, could revitalize the show, make it more viewer and advertiser friendly, and perhaps stall or reverse the trend that saw its median age rise from 45 to over 55 during the past 15 years.
Here are some suggestions:
Part of the problem is that the Academy Awards broadcast is geared more toward Hollywood insiders than the television viewer. In and of itself, this is not a bad thing, but it need not be the only thing.
The telecast is boring. Some have complained about the length of the telecast but that is only an issue because of how the show is presented. During last year’s entire three-and-a-half-hour broadcast, there was only one (moderately) funny scripted entertainment segment.
While Best Supporting Actor was the first award presented, over the next two-and-a-half hours, during the heart of primetime, when TV viewing is at its peak, they presented makeup and hairstyling, costume design, documentary feature, sound editing, sound mixing, production design, foreign language film, best supporting actress, animated short film, animated feature, visual effects, film editing, documentary short subject, live action short film, adapted screenplay, original screenplay, cinematography, original score, and original song. I was bored just writing this list.
The big four awards (Director, Actor, Actress, and Picture) aren’t presented until after primetime. While these awards were actually presented earlier than the previous year, we got Best Director at about 11:10pm, Best Actor at 11:20pm, Best Actress at 11:30pm, and Best Picture at 11:40pm.
Because they air so late, they tend to rush through the most important awards so the show can end by midnight. And what a lot of people don’t realize, is that what should be the highest rated portion of the show is not even measured by Nielsen, since it only measures national telecasts through the last national commercials (the final 20 minutes or so of the broadcast typically contains only local commercials).
There was a time when it was logical to hold back the major awards as a way to keep viewers tuned in. Thirty years ago, there were basically only three broadcast networks, much fewer cable networks, no streaming options, no social media, and very little original programming opposite the Academy Awards. But in today’s media world, it is counter-productive to wait until after primetime to present the most important awards. There are a lot of other viewing sources out there. People know they can tune in after primetime and still catch the major awards.
In addition, particularly with big live events, social media often keeps viewers tuned in. Had the major awards been spread out over the entire telecast, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and the like, would have seen significantly more Oscar-related activity, and kept more people tuned in and discussing the show.
The biggest box-office successes (i.e., the ones most viewers have seen) often are not nominated. My wife and I are relatively heavy moviegoers, and we saw just three of the seven Best Picture nominees from last year, and only two of the five pictures that had Best Actor, Actress, and Director nominees.
The Academy tried to address this by creating a completely new category for “popular” movies, but quickly rescinded this idea after a backlash – it seemed too much like they were trying to distinguish between popular box-office successes and Oscar-worthy productions, thereby creating two different classes of movies..
A much better solution would be to simply give the three highest grossing movies of the year automatic entries into the Best Picture category, along with five that the Academy nominates.
Here’s how to make the show more viewer and advertiser friendly.
While the bulk of the awards ordinarily presented between 9 and 11pm are no doubt important to the industry at large and friends and family of the winners, they are not the main draws for the average TV viewer.
One solution would be to have a separate hour-long show from 8-9pm for these “other” awards (with a different host). Then they can have longer clips of how costume design, makeup, production design, sound mixing, etc., are done, which may actually be interesting to a lot of people.
The main awards show can then be from 9-11:30pm. In the main awards show I would include Best Picture and Director, all the acting and screenplay awards, as well the Original Score and Song.
Here are some suggestions on the flow of the main show.
After the opening sequence, present Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.
Present one of the four major awards every 30 minutes – Best Director at 9:45, Best Actor at 10:15. Best Actress at 10:45, and Best Picture at 11:15. For Best Actor, Actress, and Picture, precede the award presentation with 2-3 minute clips of each nominee. This will provide a better picture of each performance and greater anticipation for each award. It will also serve as more effective promotion for the nominated movies. I would also consider making a deal with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu to make all the Best Picture nominees available for streaming during the week leading up to the Oscar broadcast.
Each segment of the show, for Best Director, Actor, Actress, and Picture can be sponsored by a different advertiser. While showing the clips, they could give viewers a chance to vote online and by phone, and then show their choices at the end of the show (or on an after-show) to see how viewers’ votes compared to the actual winners.
If these suggestions are implemented, the show will flow better, viewer and social-media interest will be elevated, ratings will improve, younger viewers might tune in, and people may be interested in seeing some of the nominated movies they might have missed.
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