I was unable to watch last night’s Oscars telecast (don’t currently have a working TV, plus I live in a very inconvenient time zone), but when I was browsing recaps of the ceremony this morning I came upon the same tired complaint I hear every year: “The Oscars drag on too long!”
Frankly, I’m getting sick of hearing it. The Academy Awards happen only once a year, they’re the most high profile movie awards in the world (though whether they’re the most critically relevant is another matter), and for people like myself who enjoy movies, they’re fun. They don’t go on too long. The ceremony seldom lasts longer than the Super Bowl, yet you don’t hear late night comedians making stale jokes about the Super Bowl taking forever.
Like the Super Bowl, the Oscars are an event. You get friends or family together, order some food, laugh or groan at the jokes, argue about which movies actually deserve the prize, tune out during the parts that don’t interest you, and generally make a night of it.
Who are these people who feel compelled to watch and then moan and complain that it takes forever? I don’t get it. I especially don’t like it when the broadcast takes the criticism seriously and insists on ushering people offstage within seconds, or cuts short memorial tributes out of fear that people who aren’t very interested in the program anyway will get bored.
I guess I’m wondering if anyone feels the same way. Anyone else not mind the average length of the ceremony?
I think a more accurate way to phrase my complaint is “the Oscars finish too late”. If the ceremony started at 2 in the afternoon, I wouldn’t have a problem with the length of the show.
I don’t know why they don’t start earlier since they are held on a Sunday. They could start at 6 or 6:30 like the Super Bowl. It would make way more sense than people on the east coast having to stay up past midnight. Of course, here the ended a little after 9pm.
I thought they started at 7:30 Central time, isn’t that 6:30 in CA? Earlier wouldn’t be a problem for me, I don’t know the reason for them starting at the time that they start at. Maybe so the preshow can start after the 5:00 news?
As for the length, it seemed fine to me. The speeches are kept short and they really only televise the major awards plus a few minor ones for indies and shorts that no ones ever heard of, but those are important to keep bringing fresh blood into the industry, IMO. All the really technical stuff (and things only important to those within the industry) gets done on another day without all the hoopla.
Right. I was saying they should start at 6 or 6:30 eastern time like the Super Bowl does so that families back east don’t have to stay up. It’s a Sunday, so people on the West Coast probably don’t mind the show starting at 3 or 3:30.
I suspect that the issue is that people aren’t interested in a lot of the Oscar awards that get aired. Most people don’t care about the Best Animated Short, since very few people actually see any animated shorts. They don’t care about Cinematography, since they’ll have never heard of the name of anyone who ever wins it. I think that, for most people, what they really want is an Oscars which is just:
Best Supporting Actor/Actress
Best Actor/Actress
Best Original Song
Best Original Screenplay
Best Director
Best Picture
I suspect that if they cut it down to just that, the Oscars would no longer be accused of going on too long.
I think that’s true for the people at home but I have two comments about it
1)If it was only those things it would only be about an hour or an hour and a half and would hardly be an event. It would be difficult to get all those celebrities to drop everything, spend thousands on attire, fly across the country (or world) and back a day later if they might never even be seen on TV. One by one as people don’t show up, others will follow suit. In order to keep it such a huge production the main event has to be a, well, an event.
2)I think it’s important for the Best Animated Short/Best Indie type stuff to be given some time in front of a world audience. That’s what keeps the industry moving forward. The people that get nominated and win those awards will get a ton of recognition and can move forward in the career and it brings new players into the game and it makes sure the current big dogs don’t get too comfortable.
I think for most people in the ‘it’s too long/on too late’ category, the best thing to do is to watch the opening sequence and then read the winners on the internet the next morning. Plus, anything exciting that happened will be on the news or youtube the next day.
I don’t particularly like the Oscars but I do like movies, which leaves me in a weird place where I have it on in the background and make comments while my wife watches it. And “too late” is really the problem. I know it’s four hours and it shouldn’t really be (hi, random Sound of Music tribute!), but I don’t really care that much because I’m doing other things, and my wife doesn’t care that much because she likes random Sound of Music tributes. But there’s a point where it’s over after midnight on a Sunday for 45-50% of the potential US viewing audience that is just dumb.
Either keep it within the three hours, or start it an hour or two earlier. Either one would work for most of the people complaining. You really do have a lot of options.
(Incidentally, if you had asked me off the cuff, I’d have guessed 40% of US population was in Eastern time and 30% was in Pacific, given on how much importance we normally place on placating both coasts in scheduling discussions for live television events. But I looked it up when making this post, and it’s actually about 47% in Eastern, with 80% if you include Central, which largely has the same timing concerns [since they often start work an hour earlier in local time]. Pacific has 14% or so. I intend to relatively adjust my time zone sensitivities in the future, which translates generally to caring more about Chicago and letting LA float off into the ocean as needed.)
People don’t hear the names of the folks who win for things like Cinematography or Costume Design, but they definitely root for the movies who did well in those categories to win for them - they root for the movie in the category, not the individuals who are doing the actual work, necessarily.
Also, a lot of times those smaller categories can make or a break an Oscar pool ballot ;).
The main reason why there won’t be a change in airtime is that the network wants the biggest possible audience. Now, prime time on Sunday begins at 7 pm, so you might ask why not begin it then? You could run four hours and have it done by the evening news.
The answer, grasshopper, is simple: the red carpet show. They spend an hour and a half on that because it gets great ratings and you want that to be in prime time, too.
The length of the Oscar show has definitely increased. I checked out the airtime in 1974 and it was 10 pm EST. They probably just showed the major awards (Best picture, best director, acting, and screenplay, plus maybe song).
Have NPH (or whoever is hosting) do a medley of the nominated songs instead of individual performances, kill the big musical number in the third hour, make the Academy eat some of the costs and cut commercials in half and you will have a nice 3 hour show.
It was over a little after 11 in Chicago, so that would be after midnight on the East Coast.
I don’t mind all the awards. If my kid was up for an editing award or a sound award, I would sure want to see her at the Oscars. It’s the scripted, banal chit-chat that sucks the life out of it and takes too much time.