How To Improve The Oscars For 2012
As a final not-so-fond farewell to Oscar season 2011, LW’s Academy Awards’ obsessive, Rex Okpodu, has made a list: Things The Academy Should Do Before Oscars 2012:
10. Decide on one concept and stick to it for a couple of years. People are tired of the constant changes to the telecast and the Oscars seem to have an identity crisis.
9. Unlike the Grammys where people actually perform/sing, actors cannot perform an entire script on the Oscar telecast so keep the fake performance to a minimum and bring back film montages that celebrate the one thing the Oscars are about: Cinema.
8. Stop the ratings obsession game. In this day and age 25 million domestic should be sufficient as a core audience.
7. Like 8 above, the core age group watching the Oscar is probably 30 and above. stop chasing the 18-24-year-olds, they have better things to do on a Sunday night.
6. Use theatre director/producers for the show. Bill Condon’s Oscar 81 telecast used a winning formula by crafting the show around the process of film making from start to finish.
5. Use hosts who are confident and actually entertaining. Ask Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law – their chemistry on Sunday night sparkled.
4. If you must bring out an former film star, use one with his or her faculties still quick. The use of Kirk Douglas looked desperate.
3. If you cannot get back Billy Crystal, there is no point bringing him on for a small segment. It only reminds the audience of how good he was and makes the current host/s look bad in comparison.
2. Putting a male host in drag is funny but only where there is a great punchline. Franco in drag was pointless.
1. Bring the date of the Oscars forward to the beginning of the year. The end of February is too late to review the previous year’s films.
Rex is right, the whole chasing after the young audience has hurt the whole entertainment industry, not just the Oscar show.