With about a month left before the 94th Academy Awards, the Academy announced they would cut eight categories from the live broadcast in an attempt to help with their recent viewership problem. But rather than help engage more, younger viewers, I think this move will damage the Academy’s reputation and upset what little audience they have left.
The Academy said they plan to record the announcement of eight categories – documentary short, film editing, makeup/hairstyling, original score, production design, animated short, live action short and sound – an hour before the actual show begins. These categories will then be edited down and crammed into the live show.
Last year, the 93rd Academy Awards had the lowest viewership in the history of the show. 10.3 million viewers tuned in to the show, a steep decline from 23.6 million the year before. The Academy’s president, David Rubin, released a statement after their announcement received considerable backlash, explaining the decision. “We recognize it’s a live event television show and we must prioritize the television audience to increase viewer engagement and keep the show vital, kinetic, and relevant,” Rubin explains.
Rubin assures they will be edited seamlessly into the live broadcast, but if that’s true why bother doing this? This decision effectively gives the producers power over these segments, allowing them to cut down acceptance speeches as much as they want, or edit out any statements they don’t want to broadcast, an especially dangerous power as the number of political statements and statements against the Academy themselves has increased in these speeches recently.
Several Academy members have, understandably, spoken out against this decision. By giving these categories less time and attention during the main event, they are effectively saying they are lesser than the other categories. The Oscars are far from perfect, but something I have always loved about the ceremony is that it is a night where all the elements of film are celebrated, not just the famous actors and directors we normally see. During the show we are able to celebrate the normally invisible people that help make everything happen, like editors and stylists – both of which will now be cut from the live show. Now they are cutting the less flashy and popular categories out, giving more time to the already highly paid and praised actors and directors – no disrespect to them, but this night is supposed to be about more.
Who’s to say it will stop with these eight categories? If they believe this was effective as a method of increasing the entertainment value, the Academy might begin to cut even more behind the scenes awards from the show, like writing and cinematography.
I think the Academy made a bad decision this year and set a dangerous precedent. They are bringing back hosts in a big way, this year having three hosts, Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer, and Regina Hall. I’m excited to see hosts brought back, especially after the awkwardness of last year without any hosts and hardly any comedic relief moments, but I’d hate to think these eight awards were cut so the hosts could have more time for their own bits. I’ll still watch the broadcast like I do every year, I just hope Rubin sticks to his promise and these cut categories are still treated with respect and given the time they deserve for all the work they do.
Tracy Mullinax can be reached at [email protected]