A Last Word on the 2019 Academy Awards
The ceremony’s ratings rose for the first time in five years. But it’s probably not because of any specific change made to the Oscars.
Every aspect of the Oscars’ unfolding identity crisis over the past year was about one thing: TV ratings. Suggestions of a “” award, an attempt to by airing some categories during the commercials, a that ended with no host—it was all in response to the audience for last year’s Academy Awards, which hit a record low of 26.5 million viewers after years of decline. Though the slippage reflected a larger trend of for event television, ABC was still alarmed enough to put pressure on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to in search of
