The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » Oscar Night....Does Anybody Care?

mojo55 · April 25, 2021 11:12 am

The Oscar telecast has declined in popularity in recent years. Will you be watching tonight? With movie theatres
closed and films presented on streaming services not available to many, interest must be at an all time low.
There are two films that I am interested in seeing. Nomadland on Disney which I don’t subscribe to and Minari on
Amazon Prime which is charging an outrageous $19.99 to rent on top of your annual membership fee. I shall wait
until the rental fee is dropped. The Oscars used to be appointment viewing for me.....now not so much.

RadioActive · April 25, 2021 11:17 am

The only award show I ever watched religiously was The Emmys. But now that almost every show nominated is from a streaming service featuring shows I don't watch or care about, I have to admit I've lost a lot of my interest in who gets what. While it will still be around for a while, I often wonder how long broadcast network TV will continue in its present form.

And here's a weird irony: every award show that airs on TV is eligible for an Emmy nomination. The only one that isn't? The Emmys itself.

MJ Vancouver · April 25, 2021 12:26 pm

Have never cared about awards shows. Don’t care about this one either.

turkeytop · April 25, 2021 2:24 pm

It gives me a certain measure of satisfaction, saying I have never once in my life watched the Oscars presentation show or any other awards show.

Media Observer · April 25, 2021 4:41 pm

MJ Vancouver wrote:
Have never cared about awards shows. Don’t care about this one either.

Me too.

turkeytop · April 25, 2021 6:53 pm

torontostan wrote:
Prediction: this will be the lowest rated Oscars in history. Yes that's not much of a bold prediction.. more like inevitable. Nobody I know has been to the movie's since Feb 2020, if that.

My last movie was about 1990. My wife dragged me out to watch Driving Miss Daisy.

April 25, 2021 7:55 pm

turkeytop wrote:
My last movie was about 1990. My wife dragged me out to watch Driving Miss Daisy.

Condolences (to Ms. TurkeyTop)

turkeytop · April 25, 2021 8:07 pm

geo wrote:
turkeytop wrote:
My last movie was about 1990. My wife dragged me out to watch Driving Miss Daisy.
Condolences (to Ms. TurkeyTop)

Condolences?

I'm not dead yet.

RadioActive · April 25, 2021 8:36 pm

So, I just watched the first 30 mins. of this thing, which is uncharacteristic of me, since I don't much care about the Oscars. But I was curious how they would handle it. I know COVID has changed things but at the pace it's going, it might end sometime next Thursday. The acceptance speeches are longer than the movies they starred in.

Man, is it slow and unwatchable. I'm out.

Dale Patterson · April 25, 2021 10:20 pm

These awards shows - especially the Oscars - have gotten very political. Also I'm usually not familiar with most of the movies so there's little or no reason to watch. Now if they had a radio awards show I might take a peek.

MJ Vancouver · April 25, 2021 10:34 pm

Media Observer wrote:
MJ Vancouver wrote:
Have never cared about awards shows. Don’t care about this one either.
Me too.

I’m watching old Simpsons reruns on Much.

RadioActive · April 25, 2021 11:13 pm

I checked back in around 11 to see if it was still on

It was.

To make things even more bizarre, they awarded the Best Picture, which I thought for sure would be the end of the show.

Nope. Back to commercials and then the Best Actor coming up.

In all the decades I've paid any attention to this thing, Best Pic was always, always, always the final award of the night, saving the best for last so to speak. I have no idea why, after all these years, they changed it. At least it only ran 20 minutes over its scheduled time. But it sure felt longer.

Radiowiz · April 25, 2021 11:20 pm

The chosen music for displaying those who passed away this past year was awful.
They could have chosen better music and they should have slowed each pic down a notch.
Each person seemed to race by my TV screen faster than normal.

RadioActive · April 26, 2021 1:54 pm

Not a big surprise.

TV Ratings: Oscars at All-Time Low in Early Numbers

betaylored · April 26, 2021 3:36 pm

Esteemed Anthony Hopkins, who won Best Actor for The Father last night and became, so I read, the oldest actor to receive the honor, skipped attending the Oscar ceremony to go to Wales to visit his father's grave. I think he taped a thank you. Sir Anthony had the right idea. Life's too short to blow 3+ hours on a badly produced tv awards show.

Wonder if Harvey Weinstein watched from his prison hospital bed.

tvguy · April 26, 2021 5:02 pm

In previous years, there was a live orchestra who "played off" those winners whose speeches went too long. We ending our viewing just after the Scandinavian director must have spoken for 5-6 minutes, about his daughter's death, thanked everyone except Joe Biden, for his success and rambled on..... Remember, he won for a foreign-language movie we've never heard of..and probably will never see. We like foreign films. But...his appearance was probably worth 2 minutes - max. Other speeches went off the rails...and had little to do with the movies. The academy awards are supposed to be about movies, not social justice aspirations. Not likely to come back as a viewer, in future years. There are many other compelling viewing options.

RadioActive · April 26, 2021 5:13 pm

The run-on speeches were definitely the worst part of the half hour I watched. Most of them said "they hadn't prepared anything" and then droned on and on and on for 5 or 6 minutes at a time. One article I read compared it to being forced to watch someone's old home movies. And unless you're in them, you know how dull that can be.

Peter the K · April 26, 2021 5:38 pm

Don't want to seem insensitive but I just wish there was a hard and fast rule that all winners get 30 seconds to give their speeches -- no exceptions. When the time is up, the music plays and voiceover begins, even it it tramples on the speech.

Either that or just get a great big hook and yank them off stage.

Glen Warren · April 26, 2021 7:17 pm

torontostan wrote:
torontostan wrote:
Prediction: this will be the lowest rated Oscars in history. Yes that's not much of a bold prediction.. more like inevitable. Nobody I know has been to the movie's since Feb 2020, if that.
RadioActive wrote:
Not a big surprise.

TV Ratings: Oscars at All-Time Low in Early Numbers
What do I win?

A NEW CAR!!! ???

betaylored · April 26, 2021 7:59 pm

Peter the K wrote:
just get a great big hook and yank them off stage.

I think you're on to something Peter the K, I'd watch (some) of the Oscars if that's how they got people who went overtime giving their acceptance speeches off the stage, I bet it'd pull viewers back to the show, and imagine the commercials and promotions they could run beforehand, it'd be quite the hook.

Hansa · April 26, 2021 9:23 pm

Ricky Gervais should host every awards show.

Last edited by Hansa (April 26, 2021 9:23 pm)

Peter the K · April 26, 2021 10:05 pm

Radiowiz wrote:
The chosen music for displaying those who passed away this past year was awful.
They could have chosen better music and they should have slowed each pic down a notch.
Each person seemed to race by my TV screen faster than normal.

I just watched the In Memoriam segment on YouTube and to call it dreadful would be an insult to all things dreadful.

The segment ran 4:40 with a 1:25 preamble and 30 seconds at the end of the segment. That's about 2 minutes for the actual tribute for 95 people. (yes, I counted them)

The music was totally inappropriate and far too upbeat for the segment. I understand what they were trying to do but I'm sorry. It just didn't work.

The time allotted to each person's slide was totally random and was, in some cases, a fraction of a second. I had to pause the video to catch most of them.

I'd post it here but I wouldn't want RA to ban me for posting that kind of garbage on this board. If you really want to see it just look it up.

Just terrible.

Media Observer · April 26, 2021 10:27 pm

Peter the K wrote:
Radiowiz wrote:
The chosen music for displaying those who passed away this past year was awful.
They could have chosen better music and they should have slowed each pic down a notch.
Each person seemed to race by my TV screen faster than normal.
I just watched the In Memoriam segment on YouTube and to call it dreadful would be an insult to all things dreadful.

The segment ran 4:40 with a 1:25 preamble and 30 seconds at the end of the segment. That's about 2 minutes for the actual tribute for 95 people. (yes, I counted them)

The music was totally inappropriate and far too upbeat for the segment. I understand what they were trying to do but I'm sorry. It just didn't work.

The time allotted to each person's slide was totally random and was, in some cases, a fraction of a second. I had to pause the video to catch most of them.

I'd post it here but I wouldn't want RA to ban me for posting that kind of garbage on this board. If you really want to see it just look it up.

Just terrible.

...and as in past years, the list was incomplete:

https://pagesix.com/2021/04/26/naya-rivera-jessica-walter-more-left-out-of-oscars-2021-in-memoriam/

Last edited by Media Observer (April 26, 2021 10:28 pm)

RadioActive · April 26, 2021 11:25 pm

Peter the K wrote:
Radiowiz wrote:
The chosen music for displaying those who passed away this past year was awful.
They could have chosen better music and they should have slowed each pic down a notch.
Each person seemed to race by my TV screen faster than normal.
I just watched the In Memoriam segment on YouTube and to call it dreadful would be an insult to all things dreadful.

The segment ran 4:40 with a 1:25 preamble and 30 seconds at the end of the segment. That's about 2 minutes for the actual tribute for 95 people. (yes, I counted them)

The music was totally inappropriate and far too upbeat for the segment. I understand what they were trying to do but I'm sorry. It just didn't work.

The time allotted to each person's slide was totally random and was, in some cases, a fraction of a second. I had to pause the video to catch most of them.

I'd post it here but I wouldn't want RA to ban me for posting that kind of garbage on this board. If you really want to see it just look it up.

Just terrible.

You'll have to do a lot worse than that to get out of posting here Mr. P The K! You're a valued SOWNY member. Still, if those comments made anyone curious about just how badly they botched this, you can see the segment here.

Peter the K · April 27, 2021 10:31 am

RadioActive wrote:
You'll have to do a lot worse than that to get out of posting here Mr. P The K! You're a valued SOWNY member. Still, if those comments made anyone curious about just how badly they botched this, you can see the segment here.

Why thank you. While my comments were tongue-in-cheek, I really did feel it was bad enough not to it unless they deliberately wanted to see it.

But as to why the whole broadcast fell so horribly flat, this article may sum it up.

(yes, I know a lot of people don't like Morgan but he does have a point)

Piers Morgan furiously brands 'woke-ravaged' Oscars 2021 a 'howlingly dull trainwreck'

Specifically,

Instead, we were treated to a breathtakingly boring procession of self-indulgent heavily scripted actors delivering supremely virtuous identity-politics speeches.

Nothing rankles me more than people using their celebrity to engage in virtue signaling. You're an entertainer -- entertain! We all know how the entertainment industry is a paragon of virtue.

Last edited by Peter the K (April 27, 2021 10:34 am)

Radiowiz · March 12, 2023 11:45 pm

For the 2023 Oscars
The honouring of WB 100 years was blocked out by CTV's Sim Sub in favour of more ads.
No worries, It can be seen here: https://www.wb100.com/intl/

Last edited by Radiowiz (March 12, 2023 11:46 pm)

Radiowiz · March 12, 2023 11:53 pm

Also noted: The 2023 coverage of those who passed was all music, no voices.
Does that save time? We got to see some quick clips with no audio, (outside of music) but mostly pictures, so I can only guess so. Too bad though, because (On my opinion) I like to think it's nice to hear their voices.

Last edited by Radiowiz (March 13, 2023 12:06 am)

splunge · March 13, 2023 12:03 am

hard no. i watched the brier final instead.

Radiowiz · March 13, 2023 12:08 am

splunge wrote:
hard no. i watched the brier final instead.

& wasn't there a hockey game or something? lol
If not Toronto, maybe Ottawa was playing? Hockey fans tend to record the Oscars to watch later.
(Hockey first, Oscars second, lol)

betaylored · March 13, 2023 12:21 am

Radiowiz wrote:
Also noted: The 2023 coverage of those who passed was all music, no voices.
Does that save time? We got to see some quick clips with no audio, (outside of music) but mostly pictures, so I can only guess so. Too bad though, because (On my opinion) I like to think it's nice to hear their voices.

They left out Cindy Williams. 😔