THB #87: Deconstructing Oscar

I am honestly looking forward to not discussing Oscar for a while. But for now, it’s one of the big things on the table.

In light of The Academy giving up, yet again, on trying to make Oscar about the celebration of the art form, chasing ratings desperately, there have been many expressions of what “Oscar viewers want.”

Rather than chewing on every iteration, I thought it might be a good exercise to break down what the Oscar show is.

3 hours (in principle)

15 minutes an hour of commercials

135 minutes of show

In that 135 minutes, the show is meant to present…

23 awards

23 presentations of category (min 55 minutes)

23 walk-ups (about 12 minutes)

23 thank you speeches (min. 23 minutes)

Opening Monologue (10 min)

10 Best Picture packages (min 15 min)

5 Original Songs (min 10 min)

That’s 125 minutes on just the basics, with tight timing

That leaves 10 minutes for whatever else they want to try.

In 2022, with 3 hosts, the 10 minute opening will likely be 3 3-minute bits. So now the producers have 11 minu…