LOS ANGELES, March 24 (Reuters) – Three feminine comedians will share internet hosting duties, followers will select two awards, and a few acceptance speeches will probably be recorded earlier than the dwell broadcast.
That’s a part of the plan to shake up this yr’s Academy Awards telecast, which faces a pivotal check on Sunday to attempt to rebound from final yr’s record-low scores.
After going with no host since 2019, the 94th Oscars boasts three: comedians Amy Schumer, Regina Corridor and Wanda Sykes. It marks the primary time a trio of ladies will emcee the ceremony, every bringing her personal humorousness.
“We’re already beginning with three vaginas,” Corridor mentioned in an interview. “I feel three ladies on stage already units (the present) off, so I feel we’re beginning fairly sizzling.”
“Trainwreck” star Schumer has described her model as “mean-spirited” and mentioned she is able to “burn some bridges” within the A-list viewers. “That is why we’re all right here, simply so we will trash one another,” she joked in a video launched by broadcaster ABC.
Chatting with reporters on Thursday, Corridor and Sykes promised a gentler tone to mirror the present theme of “Film Lovers Unite.”
“We’re coming in there with love,” Sykes mentioned. “We wish everybody to have a very good time, and we would like all people to really feel comfortable.”
In its heyday, the Academy Awards reigned as must-see TV and served as a glitzy business for Hollywood. Greater than 55 million U.S. viewers tuned in when megahit “Titanic” swept the honors in 1998.
Final yr, when the COVID-19 pandemic prompted organizers to maneuver the ceremony to a prepare station with restricted attendance and no musical performances, viewership sank to 10.4 million on ABC, which has rights to televise the present via 2028.
And whereas the viewers measurement is shrinking, the age of viewers watching conventional tv, together with the Oscars, is rising, mentioned media advisor Brad Adgate.
“Youthful viewers will not be staying residence to look at this,” Adgate mentioned. “I feel the style has change into passe, like magnificence pageants was a giant occasion on tv. It is slipping into that class.”
An Oscars statuette on show at a screening of the Oscars in Paris, France April 26, 2021. Lewis Joly/Pool through REUTERS/File Photograph
The Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences, which organizes the Oscars, shouldn’t be alone on this problem.
Excluding NFL soccer video games, dwell TV viewing has declined throughout the board as viewers flip to streaming exhibits on demand or spend time on TikTok and Twitter. The Emmys and Grammys additionally posted record-low viewership throughout the pandemic.
Plus, scores information don’t seize all the viewership on streaming.
At this yr’s Oscars, music will probably be again with performances by superstars Beyonce, Billie Eilish and others.
Organizers additionally hope to spotlight a number of the yr’s largest motion pictures by asserting the outcomes of two fan polls performed on Twitter, for favourite movie and finest movie second.
Latest nominations have tended to give attention to arthouse titles. This yr’s most-nominated film, “The Energy of the Canine,” is a psychological thriller that streamed on Netflix (NFLX.O), a couple of merciless ranch proprietor within the American West. learn extra
Producers are aiming to maintain the present to 3 hours. Some years it has stretched past 4.
To assist hold inside that point restrict, winners of eight awards together with sound and manufacturing design will probably be introduced contained in the Dolby Theatre simply earlier than the TV broadcast. Edited recordings of their speeches will probably be performed throughout the telecast.
The change sparked a backlash from Steven Spielberg and others who mentioned it was a slight to craftspeople who’re essential to bringing motion pictures to the display screen.
“They’re attempting to make the present punchier and shorter,” mentioned Nigel Smith, motion pictures editor at Folks journal. “Hopefully, that is the sort of present we’ll be seeing, one thing shocking and new and recent.”
If scores decline additional, he added, “they’re simply going to have to return to the drafting board.”
Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Extra reporting by Alicia Powell in New York and Rollo Ross in Los Angeles; Enhancing by Jonathan Oatis, Richard Chang and Aurora Ellis
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