Years ago folks used to make the Oscars a really big deal: They'd have "Oscar parties," make a big game of who was going to win what categories, put out fancy snacks. It was a national event. Everyone loved it!
These days the Academy is so worried about retaining viewers that they're proposing to axe a whopping 30% of live awards:
Eight of the 23 Oscar categories will not be presented live on the March 27 broadcast; instead, they'll be taped in the hour before the telecast in the audience and then run at points during the show. In a letter that just went out from AMPAS President David Rubin to nominees and members, explanations were given for the change, but it clearly is an attempt to broaden the audience for the show.
LOL! "Broaden the audience." Live look at the Academy's strategic planning office:
The problem isn't that people don't want to watch the minor awards; it's that they're sick of the Oscars being a lame, predictable, woke dirge in which awards are given out to awful movies and bad performances.
The ceremony has fallen a long way from its glory days. I mean, even back in the day, when the Oscars was political, it was great at it. Recall that when Marlon Brando won the Oscar for The Godfather, he straight-up sent an Apache queen to openly decline it on his behalf:
