“And the Oscar goes to…” is a phrase that is uttered while millions of people watching at home and hundreds of star-studded actors in the Dolby Theater in Hollywood wait with bated breath as they all listen for the name of the individual who will be receiving one of the most prestigious awards in entertainment history: the Oscar.
Unfortunately, viewership for the once can’t-miss event has dropped significantly over the last decade. According to statista.com, from 2000-2014, viewership never dropped below 30 million, but ever since then, these numbers have dropped at an increasing rate, with the 2023 show only managing to draw in 18.7 million viewers.
This substantial dip is a result of many factors, chief of which being social media and its ability to display the happenings of the event in seconds. A person can simply watch the highlights on various platforms without having to slug through the entire event.
“The “scrolling” nature of phones, social media and the internet in general have negatively impacted our attention-spans,” psychology teacher Aaron Sterchi said. “People care less about tuning into the actual event of the Oscars because they can easily access highlights or clips of it.”
Of the 152 North students surveyed, only 26 percent watch the full show, with the majority of students opting to see the highlights the day after instead.
Another reason why fewer people have stopped tuning in to the show is the often lack of diversity in the nominations. In 2016 for the second year in a row, all 20 acting nominees were white. . This led to many big names in Hollywood to boycott the ceremony including Spike Lee as well as Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith..
“In 2022, 81 percent of Academy members were white and 67 percent were male; this lack of diversity reflects in the nominations and awards,” William He, writer for business insider said. “In the Oscars’ 95 years, men have accounted for 71.1 percent of nominations in the top eight categories and men have won three times more often than women.”
Besides issues with inclusion, the Oscars have been overly politicized for years with the choice of presenters to actors using their acceptance speeches as a soapbox for social criticisms.. From having then Vice President Joe Biden as a presenter in 2016 to having Joaquin Phoenix in 2020 discuss misogyny to animal rights to plundering natural resources. In 1973 Marlon Brando even sent Sacheen Littlefeather in his place to decline his best actor award as a protest against the U.S. government’s treatment of Native Americans.
“I personally don’t want to watch an event full of political references,” Plainfield South alumni Gracie Newman said. “I want to see people win their awards, thank whoever they need to thank, and move on.”
Along with distaste for politics in the Oscars, viewers also don’t enjoy the self-congratulatory nature of the show. People simply don’t want to see the Hollywood elite receive even more praise on top of their already large financial gains from the roles they were in. For example, in 2020, Will Smith reportedly earned $40 million for “King Richard” along with the best actor award.
“It’s hard to watch a bunch of wealthy people get dressed up and flaunt their status knowing that the resources used to put on the event would be better used to help some of the larger issues in our world,” junior Kamila Panka said.
Another cause of the Oscars decline is due to the oversaturation of the number of award shows devoted to the film industry. With the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, People’s Choice and even the MTv Movie Awards, viewers have a lot of options when deciding which ceremony they want to watch. Since the Oscars end the award season, people who have watched other shows can predict the winners of the award already, giving them no incentive to watch.
“Given the number of award shows; the number of outlets that are centered on gossip and showbiz, the Oscar brand in terms of generating excitement and novelness, may be diluted,” North director Kit Crawford said.
The entertainment industry is ever-changing, and if the Oscars want to become relevant once again, they have to change with it. One way to go about changing is shortening the length of the show. The 2002 show ran four hours and twenty three minutes, which is a stark difference from the first Oscars, which was only fifteen minutes.
“As much as I love to watch the show, it takes up a lot of time,” junior Amanda Tracey said. “Three to four hours is a big commitment, and I can understand why the long runtime would cause people to not tune in.”
The academy should also consider nominating more blockbuster films if they want viewership to increase. They have recently started to listen to this suggestion, nominating movies in 2023 such as “Top Gun:Maverick”, “Elvis” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” for multiple major awards, leading to viewership increasing by 2 million.
“The biggest change the show will need to adjust to is the viewing habits of people. If the voters can be more willing to consider more films that people have heard of and invested money in, then they may be able to rise to prominence once again,” economics teacher Sean Barber said.