There are bullets in the academy. The 2021 Oscars will air on Sunday following the failure of ratings from other award shows. The Golden Globes saw 6.9 million people in February, down from 18.4 million in 2020. Last month’s Gramims was given a similar setback: 7.89 million viewers – less than half of what it was last year.
The Oscars will also inevitably see its 23.6 million viewership decrease in 2020, which already represented a decline in visibility. When the rating is released on Monday morning, it will be a disaster. An existential crisis for films. Adieu, Oscar.
Don’t light the funeral pyres yet! Some of the decline is simply due to epidemic screen fatigue, and even film hobbyists don’t care much about this year’s crop of nominated films – otherwise streaming services would surely boast about their numbers. Still, you can’t help but feel like we’ve reached the end of an era, when all of America would sit down on Sunday nights and wear a sunglasses front row to Jack Nicholson Dolby Theatre Will laugh from
we have. But, as TS Eliot put it, “the end is just the beginning.” The cultural touchstones of the old school have been at the door of death before reinforcing themselves and coming out of the swing. Here are some successful, tested strategies that can help Oscar survive another day.
Cast a star
Broadway often has a weather beat as it awaits a new hit. One true strategy that we try to use to remain relevant is star casting. That person, not just the show, becomes the event. For instance, Bette Midler returned to music for the first time in decades, when she sang “Hello, Dolly!” Played the title role in. In 2017. In the 50-year-old show, the actress commanded a top ticket of around $ 1,000.
Oscar needs to follow this pattern with his host. The network should no longer promote its late-night show (sorry Jimmy Kimmel), or fall back on old relatable (Billy Crystal, Chris Rock) and harbrened stunts (James Franco and Anne Hathaway). And the no-host format is practically waving the white flag of surrender.
Choose a host that will tune the audience to see if they care about the nominated films. Saw Recall and the hilarious Dave Chappelle to do it. Or hire Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Access key is
As Americans are digging cars, consumers are cutting the cord and turning to streaming for their TV needs. Oscar has not embraced this reality.
ABC shows are in dire need of attention to reach. Every year, most publications write a story along the lines of “how to watch Oscar tonight”. This is because it is more complicated than you think. To watch a broadcast on the website or the ABC app, you need to plug in your cable password – or pay to watch it through a pricey YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV subscription.
If I were an Oscar producer, I would create a popular streaming service – Netflix, Hulu, Amazon – for broadcast rights, exactly as the NFL recently did with Amazon. Netflix currently has 208 million subscribers worldwide. Imagine if only 20 percent saw the Oscars.
Embrace the old
You can listen to most of your music on your phone these days, but you can still buy brand-new records. Taylor Swift’s “Evermore” is available as an LP, perfect in the moment – and people (over 60 youth) are buying it. Popular music embracing a retro format provides a good lesson that sometimes the key to sticking around is playing for a devoted fan – in this case the music-lover – to try to please everyone Instead. With its tireless emphasis on the new, the show forgets that, contrary to popular logic, many youths actually enjoy the quality of old things.
In 2003, Oscar winner Olivia de Havilland launched a special celebration for the ceremony’s 75th anniversary: 58 famous past Oscar winners sat in rows on stage, and their names were called one by one. If you haven’t seen it, check it out – The list is amazing. Seeing Julie Andrews, Sean Connery and Rita Moreno share the stage with Daniel Washington, Hal Berry and Meryl Streep was an inspiring, nostalgic, gimmick-free, magic moment.
One YouTube commenter said: “I would like to see the Oscars again after a while,” which was liked by 843 people. Oscar should embrace the past more, not just New and Hot.
Cut to length
Last year’s Oscar was 3.5 hours long. In the same timeframe, a person could fly from JFK to Cancun, and be very happy at their final destination. Late-night TV, a bedraggled format if ever there was one, realized the power of brevity years ago.
At Aughts, many Americans, for better or worse, got their news from “The Daily Show with John Stewart” – a program that was 30 minutes faster. In 2019, veteran host Con O’Brien decided to reduce his schedule to even 30 minutes. We still have enough time to laugh and give interviews.
The usual suspects would be angry at me, but shifting some technical categories – editing, sound, cinematography – off the broadcast, or in a different function altogether, could take the evening down to 2.5 hours more.
Stay indifferent
Have you ever heard someone say, “I hate Dolly Parton”? I will not place bets. The Busty Blond Country Singer has been, for decades, one of the few things Americans can agree on.
Beyond her immense talent, charm and good humor, there is a big reason for this: she never jumps into the political fray.
But most celebrities simply cannot say that the audience does not want to hear their opinion – we are famous! We are anointed people! Greetings to your Hollywood gods! – And so, Robert De Niro spews his raw opinions on the most frivolous night of the year.
The audience hates it. The producers of the Oscars can’t do much about it (in my dreams, they’ll pay the fine), but the stars need to hear it: every time you rant about the White House, or the Senate, or the war and someone Don’t kill someone by shutting down the Oscars that won’t turn them on again.
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