Sunday evening’s Oscars improved over final yr’s traditionally low rankings, however cratered in civility and beauty.
Strike one other demise knell for the once-almighty rankings grabber.
Tinseltown likes to think about itself as the middle of the ethical and popular culture universe, however c’mon — that was ridiculous, one other slap within the face for what’s speculated to be (however hardly ever is) “Hollywood’s Shining Second,” with tv alongside for the experience on a gravy practice that’s gone off the rails and crashed right into a wall of indifference.
Sunday evening’s Oscarcast on ABC is the second-lowest-rated Oscars ever with round 15 million viewers, up from final yr’s abysmal 10.4 million viewing viewers (akin to an episode of “Yellowstone” on cable’s Paramount Community).
The mediocre rankings bump will instill in nervous community execs the hope that this dinosaur will be saved from extinction — as a substitute of seeing the plain writing on the (video) wall that it’s too late for that.
This yr’s annual self-congratulatory festivities have been produced by Will Packer, who can thank one other Will (Smith) for maybe essentially the most controversial second within the ceremony’s 93-year historical past … if solely anybody was watching it dwell on ABC, as a substitute of scurrying to their computer systems late Sunday evening/ Monday morning to see what all of the social media ruckus was about.
There’s little doubt that Smith’s WTF? open-palmed smack of Oscars presenter Chris Rock after Rock joked about Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia (“Jada, can’t watch for ‘G.I. Jane 2′”) will probably be parsed and analyzed underneath a sociological microscope — accompanied by the requisite hand-wringing — till subsequent yr’s Academy Awards.
There’s an opportunity that Smith could possibly be fined by the FCC for his profanity-laced tirade launched at Rock as soon as he sat again down. It was bleeped out by ABC however heard elsewhere world wide, in order that’s one other stick of kindling to throw onto the firestorm. It’s unlikely Smith will probably be fined — much more unlikely that, as has been speculated, he’ll be compelled to forfeit his Oscar by the Academy — however nonetheless. It’s a talker. However talkers, nevertheless spontaneous, gained’t reverse the standard TV course of this ship. It’s sailed and must dock on one other platform.
If the powers-that-be had any moxie in a enterprise that’s constructed on leisure, for crying out loud, they might transfer the 2023 Oscars to an online-only dwelling in a digital actuality during which broadcast tv, already deadened by too many self-congratulatory awards reveals, disappears only a bit extra every season. Imagine me, extra individuals will watch on-line than sit in entrance of their TV units. It’s an indication of the instances.
And, whereas they’re at it, lop an hour or two off the three-or-more-hour, watching-paint-dry proceedings. The ostensible glitz and glamour of Tinseltown’s Largest Night time go solely to this point when you get previous the “Who're you carrying?” red-carpet moments, and that’s solely from a vogue perspective, should you even care, and it’s within the pre-show — one other pointless, little-watched time-suck.
All of it vanishes as soon as the laborious telecast will get underway and also you notice you have been bought a invoice of products in all of the run-up hype that “issues will probably be completely different this yr.” They gained’t be. I believe we all know that by now. Carry again fan-favorite Billy Crystal? Received’t matter in the long term.
That’s to not say that Oscars producers haven’t tried to alter it up for a telecast that, as soon as upon a time, snared over 40 million viewers in these salad days when it completed behind solely the Tremendous Bowl in TV’s annual rankings scorecard.
This yr, there have been three hosts: Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes and Regina Corridor. Eight awards have been minimize from the dwell present to goose the momentum. Neither “innovation” did the trick to stanch the plodding. Sunday evening’s Oscarcast was the longest it’s been in 4 years, when it ran almost 40 minutes into extra time. Did nobody get the memo?
After which there have been the aesthetic insults. Did we actually must see Amy Schumer as Spider-Man — a blaring shill second for ABC’s company father or mother, Disney, which additionally owns Marvel Leisure? And should you get Beyoncé to carry out, you present her dwell, not pre-taped vis-a-vis her efficiency of “Be Alive.” Samuel L. Jackson gained an honorary Oscar … however was relegated to awkwardly watching his “Pulp Fiction” co-stars Uma Thurman and John Travolta re-create their iconic dance from the film since his acceptance speech was minimize from the telecast together with fellow honorees Liv Ullman, Danny Glover and Elaine Could. Huge mistake. C’mon individuals, get a clue.
It’s time to alter how and the place we watch the Oscars.
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