Okay, who’s ready for my ultimate dream of how the Oscar telecast should play out???
Here it is!
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I want two separate halves of the Oscars, both two hours long, with an hour-long halftime show. Here’s how it would be structured…
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PART ONE
(AKA The Cinephile Show)
A two-hour show with a slightly less known but loved host (a Jenny Slate type), and 12 Oscars are given out: The three shorts, the six visual crafts plus sound, and then Part One culminates with Best Doc and Best International Feature.
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Part one also features two honorary Oscars (because in my dream all honorary Oscars are given out live on the show). Whichever two of the four fit the more niche, cinephile vein. Think Liv Ullmann, Frederick Wiseman, and Charles Burnett.
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Then, HALFTIME!
The halftime show takes places at the Hollywood Bowl (or just somewhere else), so everyone at the Dolby can spend an hour mingling and boozing and stretching their legs.
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The halftime show is an hour, and it features performances of all five song and segments of all five nominated scores.
AND! Every commercial during the halftime show is a new movie trailer.
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Then, PART TWO
Also a two hour show, and this is the Oscars for the laymen. Get a superstar host, and give out 11 Oscars: both screenplays, both music, animated feature, all four actors, director, and picture.
PLUS, you give honorary Oscars to two superstars/legends.
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That’s it. Five hours, but segmented so people know when stuff happens and they can tune in for what they want. If you only want to watch the two hours with big stars, that’s there for you.
And it starts at 5:30 eastern time so that it’s all over at 10:30.
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I think being up front about scheduling is a huge part of the Oscar ratings problem. Viewers never know if the next award will be documentary short or Brad Pitt winning best Supporting Actor, so they just tune out of the whole thing.
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Think about sports—casual viewers always know where they stand with where things are by just a quick glance at what quarter/period/inning the game is in. The Oscars need that level of “Here’s where we are in the show” recognition.
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And I know at first five hours seems absurd, but is it? The Super Bowl is that long when you add in team intros and the MVP presentation. And with an hour halftime, the people in the Dolby audience should be fine.
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Plus, for most of the public, you’d really only be asking them to watch a two hour show, which should be a huge win. Or maybe the halftime could become appointment viewing with star musicians and major trailer drops.
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I’d love to know what you think of the above set of Oscar ideas if you get a chance to look
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