Tag: Oscars

How to adapt awards shows in the age of streaming

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.

Oscars 2022: Did the awards show sink or swim?

It’s the slap seen ’round the world. Not heard…because the audio was cut quickly from the U.S. broadcast.

This year’s Oscars tried some new things, but did it work?

Unfortunately, it’s hard to say since Will Smith slapping Chris Rock after Rock made a pointed jab at Smith’s wife Jada is what everyone’s talking about. I don’t have commentary to add to this moment; none of it was OK.

Here are my thoughts on the 94th Academy Awards:

Did the 3 hosts work?

Hiring three women is cheaper than hiring one man to host was one of my favorite jokes of the night because it’s funny while being relevant.

Amy Schumer, Wanda Skyes and Regina Hall hosted this year’s ceremony. They were announced late and are the first to host in three years.

All considering I thought they did well. They had funny bits, though some ran long (Skyes at the academy museum) and felt thirsty (Hall’s “random” COVID test callout).

The segmentation of one host at a time felt disjointed and rigid over the night’s run. They were best together.

Overall I prefer having hosts to no host. And more than one allows synergy and takes the pressure off.

Did cutting awards work?

Pre-Oscars, the biggest controversy seemingly was cutting eight awards from the telecast. Except they weren’t cut; they were announced early and edited into the show.

Usually, these nominees are stuck in the back of the theater because they aren’t big names. So in a way, it saved filler time by cutting out the part where they have to run to the stage to get the award.

But the point was to reduce the overall run time. And the Oscars still ran for more than three and a half hours.

There were other ways to ensure the ceremony went less than three hours. While the anniversary bits were nice, they could’ve been shorter (especially the Pulp Fiction one since it was a 28-year anniversary, not a milestone year like 50 or 25).

I actually liked that the Oscars were more of a celebration of movies overall, not just this year’s nominees. The nostalgia made it more enjoyable. But it was disappointing to have some of it take away from well-deserved wins.

What news source should you use for your Oscar pool?

I reviewed predictions from Entertainment Weekly, Vanity Fair, Gold Derby, The New York Times and NPR ahead of Sunday’s ceremony.

The best predictor? It’s a toss-up between Entertainment Weekly and Vanity Fair; the two publications got the most right. Entertainment Weekly got all the craft categories right but missed Best Picture. Vanity Fair got all the top-of-the-line winners correct.

So if your Oscar pool is weighted, you can decide where to go next year.

What were my standout moments?

I think it’s interesting that Billie Eilish won an Oscar before Taylor Swift or Beyonce. Eilish’s reaction was joyous.

I appreciated that during Troy Katsur’s acceptance speech, his interpreter was off-camera so we could focus on Katsur, the true winner.

The In Memorium segment was much livelier than normal, and I liked that it was more celebratory than sad.

I’m glad they added the Best Song performances back into the telecast, along with using movie soundtrack songs for the background scores for various parts of the night.

What did you think of the Oscars?

The “I Spy” Oscars game

This blog was originally published on elkharttruth.com on Feb. 12, 2015, edited slightly to make it good for any year. The 2017 Oscars will air Feb. 26 on ABC.

Remember the game “I spy with my little eye…”?

If you do, you’re in luck, because we’re playing ‘I spy’ for the Oscars.

The winners are usually unpredictable, but some predictable and funny things are bound to happen during the show.

Here are some things to watch for during the awards show:

  • Someone’s speech gets cut off by music.
  • Someone trips.
  • The host sings.
  • Someone flubs a name (As in when John Travolta called Idina Menzel “Adele Dazeem” at the 2014 Oscars).
  • Someone is bleeped.
  • Someone keeps talking even after the cut-off music starts playing.
  • More than three people say thank you for one award.
  • Someone takes a selfie.
  • Host or presenter changes outfits.
  • Diversity is mentioned.
  • Someone cries.
  • Harris does a magic trick.
  • The movie with the most nominations wins an award.
  • Someone jokes about how long the Oscars are.
  • The “in memoriam” segment plays.

And, if you’re like me and love the red carpet, here are some things to look for:

  • Someone falls.
  • Mani cam sighting.
  • Stiletto cam sighting.
  • During an interview, someone says how it’s an “honor to simply be nominated.”
  • Someone gets pranked (As in when Sacha Baron Cohen as “The Dictator” poured “ashes” on Ryan Seacrest in 2012.)

You can submit your own “I spy” moments, too. Comment here to submit your own “I spy” moments. And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @ClaraAB2 and tweet along with me. Let me know what you spy.