“To address the concerns of those who find the show to be too long and boring (thanks largely to the current existence of 24 competitive awards, Bailey and Academy CEO Dawn Hudson said in a letter to members that the board has “committed to producing an entertaining show in three hours.”
On Tuesday night, just five months after the lowest-rated Academy Awards telecast on record (a mere 26.5 million viewers tuned in), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ board of governors not only re-elected cinematographer John Bailey as its president, but also approved several major changes to the tradition-bound ceremony’s format in the hope of retaining the viewers it still has and luring others back into the fold ahead of the 91st Academy Awards on Feb. 24, 2019.
To address the concerns of those who find the show to be too long and boring (thanks largely to the current existence of 24 competitive awards, Bailey and Academy CEO Dawn Hudson said in a letter to members that the board has “committed to producing an entertaining show in three hours.”
They explain that this will be achieved partly by “present[ing] select categories live, in the Dolby Theatre, during commercial breaks (categories to be determined).” Those categories will not be removed from the telecast; instead, “the winning moments will then be edited and aired later in the broadcast.”
This new format is similar to the one employed at the Tony Awards, which are annually broadcast on CBS, to recognize some of its lower-profile categories. The Academy also notified members that the date for the 92nd Oscars — the one that will take place in 2020, honouring the films of 2019 — has been moved up from the previously announced Feb. 23 to Feb 9.
In all likelihood, this is to combat the sense that the Oscars have become anti-climactic, coming, as it does, at the end of a months-long season in which it is preceded by dozens of awards ceremonies.
