Oscars to be hosted by dynamic duo
Brendan Monroe
Issue date: 11/13/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment
The decision to name two hosts is just the latest twist to what will be a radically different 2010 Oscar telecast. Never before have the Oscars undergone such a drastic change from one year to the next, as the Academy desperately tries to appeal to an ever-shrinking television audience. The 2010 telecast first made news back in June when it was announced that the Best Picture competition would expand from the traditional five nominees to an unprecedented ten. The last time the field was that large was in 1943, when Casablanca won the award. The expansion has not played well with critics, who complain that the addition of more nominees will do nothing but damage the credibility of Best Picture contenders. This makes sense for obvious reasons. In an uncharacteristically weak year, as 2009 has thus far proven to be, some less-than-worthy films are likely to slip into the final tally. The thought of otherwise good films like J.J. Abrams's Star Trek reinvention or Todd Phillips's The Hangover being nominated for Best Picture, a category that has recognized such gems as The Godfather and Lord of the Rings trilogies, seems amiss.
The expansion was triggered by what has increasingly become a game of ratings limbo for the Academy Awards-that is, how low can they go? Academy producers originally attributed the ratings decline to a problem of hosting, but if we look at Martin's own hosting ratings, we can see this does not add up. Martin has hosted the awards twice, once in 2001 and again in 2003. In 2001, the telecast ratings were 43 million, and two years later had dipped to 33 million. Martin surely could not have been the cause of this, as his 2001 hosting duties were widely praised. The loss, then, can be attributed to this: In 2001, the smash summer blockbuster Gladiator was in the running and ended up winning five Oscars, including Best Picture. Two years later, the film that earned the prize was Chicago, which was critically acclaimed but left audiences indifferent, leading to a lack of interest in the telecast. This problem has grown in recent years, culminating in 2008 when the relatively unseen No Country for Old Men won the award in front of a record low television audience of 32 million viewers-the worst in modern history. Even after this, the Academy had yet to learn its lesson, snubbing the two biggest audience favorites of 2008, The Dark Knight and Wall-E, for relatively unseen message films Milk and The Reader. Host Hugh Jackman's opening song and dance number at the outset of the telecast summarized the problem.
"The Reader, I haven't seen The Reader," Jackman sang.
Neither had the rest of the country. Producers surmise that the new system of nominating ten movies will inevitably lead to at least a couple of audience favorites-like the aforementioned Star Trek-being included in the final tally of nominees, thus increasing viewership. This could lead to charges of favoritism if Martin and Baldwin's film, It's Complicated, makes it into the final ten, a strong possibility due to the outstanding buzz the film has already garnered. It will be interesting to tune in March 7 to find out.
The expansion was triggered by what has increasingly become a game of ratings limbo for the Academy Awards-that is, how low can they go? Academy producers originally attributed the ratings decline to a problem of hosting, but if we look at Martin's own hosting ratings, we can see this does not add up. Martin has hosted the awards twice, once in 2001 and again in 2003. In 2001, the telecast ratings were 43 million, and two years later had dipped to 33 million. Martin surely could not have been the cause of this, as his 2001 hosting duties were widely praised. The loss, then, can be attributed to this: In 2001, the smash summer blockbuster Gladiator was in the running and ended up winning five Oscars, including Best Picture. Two years later, the film that earned the prize was Chicago, which was critically acclaimed but left audiences indifferent, leading to a lack of interest in the telecast. This problem has grown in recent years, culminating in 2008 when the relatively unseen No Country for Old Men won the award in front of a record low television audience of 32 million viewers-the worst in modern history. Even after this, the Academy had yet to learn its lesson, snubbing the two biggest audience favorites of 2008, The Dark Knight and Wall-E, for relatively unseen message films Milk and The Reader. Host Hugh Jackman's opening song and dance number at the outset of the telecast summarized the problem.
"The Reader, I haven't seen The Reader," Jackman sang.
Neither had the rest of the country. Producers surmise that the new system of nominating ten movies will inevitably lead to at least a couple of audience favorites-like the aforementioned Star Trek-being included in the final tally of nominees, thus increasing viewership. This could lead to charges of favoritism if Martin and Baldwin's film, It's Complicated, makes it into the final ten, a strong possibility due to the outstanding buzz the film has already garnered. It will be interesting to tune in March 7 to find out.
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