All right, what did everybody think about the big show last night? You know, the Oscars. Anybody? I took a poll over the weekend with one question being do you plan to watch the Oscars on Sunday evening? Poll Result: Yes, 3%. The viewing audience has been declining for years (the Golden Globes, Emmys, and other Award shows, too), and the trend has been downward well before the unprecedented pandemic upended the movie industry. In 2014, over 44 million tuned into the Oscars and that was a high since 2000. In 2020, about 23 million were watching.
The reasons for fewer people interested in the Oscars are many. Millions of people have cut the cable chord and rely on social media real-time reporting to follow what used to be destination television events. Many people just don’t commit to a 3-hour plus TV appointment. Maybe fans are not as star-struck and anxious to see their favorite actors on TV since Instagram and Twitter have brought movie stars into people’s hands. As Regina King recognized last night, some people are turned off by political speeches at awards shows. A big reason why the number of watchers is going down is that Oscar-nominated movies are generally smaller, serious films without mass appeal. This year’s list of nominees is Exhibit A. Blockbusters are just not recognized. And now, even if you were interested in seeing the current nominated films, movie theaters across most of the country have been closed for over a year.
The current trajectory may be the most significant decline, but the Academy has taken several steps over the years to attract a broader audience. In 2001, an Animated Film category was added to allow these often family- oriented films to be highlighted and not lost in the shuffle. A major shake-up occurred in 2010 when the Academy went back to its roots and increased the number of Best Picture nominees from 5 to 10 (a couple years later it was revised to be between 5 and 10 based on the number of first place votes). In 2018, the Academy seriously contemplated adding a Best Popular Film category to the mix, but quickly nixed the idea. (Maybe just talking about it helped, for in 2019 there was a year-to-year rise in viewers helped possibly by the first superhero movie ever to be nominated for Best Picture (Black Panther), along with Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star is Born, and the winner, Green Book.) In 2020, however, the ratings plummeted again with limited popular movies in the mix and the Korean film, Parasite, sweeping the major award categories. This year the pandemic will prevent an audience from attending and the star power it brings to the front rows. Needless to say, Steven Soderbergh and his producing team had their work cut out to make the 2021 Oscars an enticing entertainment choice.
One positive for this year…no Zoom! The event was postponed until late April to give more people time to see the nominated movies and for the COVID-19 situation to improve. The timing allowed the historic, and recently restored, Union Station to function as the pre-gathering space in its outdoor courtyard and the terraced seating area inside the station as the awards area (the Dolby theater was used sparingly.) This was a no-host Oscars so Regina King started it off with a classy entrance, followed by a welcoming message, and then presenting the first two awards (the Screenplays). Each of the presenters did something different this year and had a few personal thoughts to share about each nominee. Angela Bassett introduced the In Memoriam and if you weren’t a speed reader you missed the names. Zendaya introduced the Best Song award which did not include a live performance of each song this time; a good move that saved about half an hour for a show that can never stay on time. It’s usually the long winded speeches which cause the show to go overtime even with the music cutting them off at the allotted time. This time it was wide open; some winners going on way too long, others quite brief. Probably a wash as far as time on acceptance speeches goes.
Glenn Close twerked. Pretty good, actually. In a Oscar music trivia game hosted by Lil Rel Howery she danced to E.U’s “Da Bun.” It was an impromptu, funny moment in an otherwise well-rehearsed program.
Nomadland was the favorite going in and won Best Picture, Director and Best Actress for Frances McDormand. The Best Supporting categories also went to the two who had gathered a lot of momentum from the other awards shows leading up to the Oscars: Daniel Kaluuya for Judas and the Black Messiah and Yuh-Jung Youn for Minari, who was very excited to have Brad Pitt as her presenter.
The order of presenting the awards was very different this year: the Screenplays first up, as opposed to the Supporting Actor categories, the Director award way early (presented by last year’s winner Bong Joon-ho from Seoul), and in what ended up to be the Doozy, the Best Picture did not conclude the show, but came before the two Best Actor awards. And there was only one HUGE award surprise and that was the last one for Best Actor. Anthony Hopkins won for his powerful performance in The Father. Chadwick Boseman was the odds-on favorite having swept the earlier award shows. Since Anthony Hopkins was not in attendance it made for a very abrupt ending to close the show. Goodnight.
So, how did the ratings end up for last night? Under 10 million, an all-time record low and less than half of last year’s dismal numbers. Ouch. I have to ask myself, maybe it’s OK for the Oscars to be geared toward more challenging, poignant, historical, diverse, and independent films, and to quit obsessing over the ratings? But it doesn’t work like that, particularly not now with numerous entertainment platforms to choose from. The Oscars need viewers, to get advertisers, to make money, to keep broadcasting the show. ABC paid big up-front bucks to host the Oscars until 2028 (NBC did likewise for the Golden Globes until 2026). So, where does this leave us… I’m not sure, but in the future I know I’ll be watching movies and the Oscars. Watching movies in the theater. My local cineplex just reopened, so hopefully soon I’ll see my first film since The Invisible Man in March, 2020. Watching movies at home on Netflix and other streaming services. Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney-Hulu have all made a big impact on how we watch movies, and even more so this year leading the way in Oscar nominations. Watching the Oscars. They will always be adjusting to changing times, but as we look ahead to the 94th one next year, they will be celebrating movies once again. Just as we will be in the theaters again.
P.S. Wait a minute, one more thing. How did I do with my predictions? 14/20. 70%. Last time I looked that was a C. Not so good. I’ll do better next year. I know it.