Oscars Goes Live (Again) in Decision Reversal

 In a reversal of its previous decision, the 2023 Academy Awards will once again air in full across all 23 categories. This rolls back the decision to cut 8 of the categories from live broadcast which we saw removed from the 2022 telecast amid a lot of industry ire. Blake & Wang P.A entertainment lawyer Brandon Blake has all the news for us.


                                                                                             Brandon Blake

Controversial Decision

The original decision to ax so-called ‘unpopular’ categories- including original score, documentary short, editing, live-action and animated short, sound, makeup and hairstyling- from the broadcast for 2022 was not well received, both among the guilds and industry leaders who felt it was severely downplaying the critical contributions of many aspects of film craft and cheapening the ceremony overall. 

 

Interestingly, this will also be the first Oscars’ broadcast since 2018 to have a host, Jimmy Kimmel, too. Currently scheduled to take place on March 12, 2023, live from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood, this will be the ceremony’s 95th year. 

Viewer Engagement

The decision to ax these categories from public broadcast was originally taken to shorten the televised time for the ceremony in the hopes of ‘increasing viewer engagement’. In short, it was hoped it would reverse the declining viewing figures for the ceremony overall, which have been on a downward trend for a decade now.

It backfired quite spectacularly, with the 2022 broadcast having the second-lowest viewership, second only to the 2021 ceremony. These declining figures certainly indicate something is wrong overall with the way Oscar viewership is handled, and it may be time to admit that a lavish self-celebratory industry party no longer holds quite the star appeal it once did with ‘common’ viewers. If the Oscars is to regain any type of hold on the ever-increasingly packed airwaves, something needs to be done- but banishing certain categories of award from airtime was clearly not it. Will the reversal of this decision boost viewer engagement this awards season? It will certainly be interesting to see.

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