Have you watched any of the awards precursors this season?
I made sure to watch the Golden Globes and the SAGs, but I missed the others, plus you can’t easily watch the BAFTAs in the U.S.
The Golden Globes are still airing on broadcast channels, while the SAGs officially moved to Netflix streaming this year.
The Academy Awards are almost 100 years old. They’ve only been televised since 1953. But TV isn’t the same anymore.
So how does the Academy adapt? What lessons can it learn from other awards shows?
Air all categories
The Academy fumbled at the 2022 Oscars, choosing to air acceptance speeches only from eight below-the-line categories. To be fair, a good chunk of those were for “Dune,” so it could’ve been repetitive, but it felt unfair to not televise them in full, especially since the show was still more than 3 hours long.
The Emmys have started to put chevrons at the bottom with a list of people the winner wants to thank. This streamlines the speeches and makes them more interesting. Seriously, listening to 20+ names is boring. Give us something inspiring.
The Academy will have to consider how this works for the 2025 season when the first casting Oscar will be awarded.
Learn what people want (or spread the wealth)
I love the fashion of awards shows. I get that it feels a bit sexiest to ask what a person is wearing, but give credit where credit is due … and don’t make that your first question on the red carpet. Also, men are stepping up their fashion game, and I’d love to know the designers.
But that’s not everyone’s MO. It’s important to bring variety to keep people interested.
Lately, the shows are getting stale because it’s a set of the same winners over and over.
Especially this year, when the Emmys and Golden Globes were so close together, I felt like I heard so many speeches from the teams of “Beef” and “Succession.” Those weren’t the only two shows out last year!
The Oscars are getting siloed, too. Even with 10 Best Picture nominees, the total number of nominated movies seems to be dwindling, as Best Picture nominees rule other categories. It’s rare to have a sole nominee for a movie these days, making the awards shows seem repetitive.
Go to streaming?
Look, I get streaming is a big huge juggernaut with some big problems.
But there’s something about the buoyancy of streaming live that seems to work.
The SAGs have been on Netflix for two years now, once on its YouTube channel and once on the app.
With it being on streaming, the winners seemed a little more free to say whatever they wanted, including swearing. Netflix means no bleeping out!
Now, I do think the lack of commercials makes for some awkward transition issues, but I bet that can be sorted out in time.
What would you change?
The 96th Academy Awards air March 10 on ABC.
