As the NFL schedule is announced, should the Oscars take note?
Maybe it's time for the Academy to reveal nominees in prime time
Are the Oscar nods ready for prime time?
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After revealing which teams would play each other in the 2012 football season a few months back, the NFL has just announced the official schedule with dates via a prime time special on the NFL Network. (I plan to be in DC for the Falcons in October, thank you.)
It got me thinking. Why debut this kind of thing at 7pm ET and miss the day's news cycle entirely? The answer, of course, is ratings, monetizing the information and its dissemination. And suddenly it occurred to me: Should the Academy take a similar tack in revealing its annual list of Oscar nominees?
This isn't a new idea. The concept of transforming the nominations announcement into a prime time special has been whispered about for years. Recently, the LA Times' Patrick Goldstein offered up his thoughts on the idea back before this year's Oscarcast and David Poland voiced his approval. Goldstein even mentioned sports in his piece to further his point.
"In today’s pop culture, anything that has any air of anticipation is a potential TV event," he wrote. "Look at sports, where everything from the NBA and NFL draft to the announcement of the MLB all-star game selections is packaged and presented as a TV show. Even the Heisman Trophy, given to the best college football player, is presented in prime time on ESPN, where last December’s award pulled in 4.6 million viewers."
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Most of the time, Goldstein's ideas for bettering the Oscar trajectory are incredibly disheartening stabs at dumbing things down and removing the prestige out of things. This, however, was an idea that took the best of those worlds and, well, two months later, I approve, too.
The Academy has been bending over backwards to generate ratings for its annual awards telecast by going against the organization's own grain and unfortunately stripping itself of identity with various manipulations of the Best Picture category. But while the yearly exercise of announcing the nominees at the crack of dawn has been aimed at capturing the news cycle early on the east coast and dominating it all day long, one has to wonder what that's really doing for the bottom line.
The news of the nominees will be as big an item the day following a prime time special as it is now, with the added benefit of advertising dollars (that are usually lost to various networks that televise the announcement) pouring in. And keep it a reveal kind of thing, only available on the show. The NFL schedule, for example, is available right now online as the NFL Network analysts dig into it on the air. Whenever the Oscar nods are announced each year, a lot of people don't even watch and just go right to the official site to get the scoop. But if the only place to go is the prime time special...
Think about it. You have a problem with ratings. Rather than chip away at the integrity of one show, add another and market the hell out of it. I'm sure ABC would be happy to air it and get a big boost of advertising for the Oscarcast out of it. You get TWO chunks of night time program to pimp movie stars and get viewers as a result. If there's a downside, I'm not seeing it.
For year-round entertainment news and awards season commentary follow @kristapley on Twitter.
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2012-2013 OSCAR PREDICTIONS
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Original Screenplay
Best Cinematography
Best Costume Design
Best Film Editing
Best Makeup And Hairstyling
Best Original Score
Best Original Song
Best Production Design
Best Sound Editing
Best Sound Mixing
Best Visual Effects
Best Animated Feature Film
Best Documentary Feature
Best Foreign Language Film
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupDylanS
April 17, 2012 at 7:43PM EST Reply to CommentKris: As a sidenote, I just looked at the Redskins schedule, how are you feeling about who we have to play?
Kristopher Tapley They had already released the teams so I figured way back that it looked like a doable schedule. Still, well, we'll see.
April 17, 2012 at 8:09PM ESTJohn G. It all hangs on RG3 (assuming he is the pick).
April 17, 2012 at 8:15PM ESTDylanS John G: I feel like I should be preparing myself for a stunner with the Colts taking RG3 over Luck, but at this point, I'll be stunned if it isn't RG3. I was happy with the schedule in that their wasn't a single game I felt was a giveaway to the other team (except maybe the first game against the Saints, but with the state of that organization, I don't know) and given that we're a rebuilding team, I think that's reassuring.
April 17, 2012 at 9:09PM ESTJohn G.
April 17, 2012 at 8:02PM EST Reply to CommentHow big of a problem is the ratings thing, really? The Oscars are only one night a year and are always the most watched program that night. The same network broadcasts the show every year and I don't see them dropping it; even if ABC did drop, another network would be happy to pick it up. Are the ratings really such a threat to the institution of the Academy Awards? The Oscars don't seem to be going anywhere. Yet year after year, boneheaded creative decisions get made purely to grab the 18-24 crowd, which don't work but do compromise the show's integrity.
John G. *Not to say that a primetime nominee announcement would taint the awards, I'm just speaking in general about the ratings topic which always comes up.
April 17, 2012 at 8:04PM ESTKristopher Tapley It's about money and getting more of it. For noble things, mind, but that's it.
April 17, 2012 at 8:08PM ESTJohn G. It's always seemed to me that the Oscars get the best ratings when they play into familiarity. Look at the success of sequels and franchises in recent years. Audiences are drawn to brands they recognize and are comfortable with. This is why Billy Crystal was a good choice to host and why the ratings were up again this year. The attempts to reinvent the show every year do the exact opposite of this and risk alienating the core audience.
April 17, 2012 at 8:18PM ESTGuy Lodge
April 17, 2012 at 8:17PM EST Reply to CommentI'm selfishly against this idea, since watching the nominee announcement at lunchtime here in the UK suits me just perfectly.
RyMickey
April 17, 2012 at 8:45PM EST Reply to CommentThis almost seems like a no-brainer. The Grammys do it already (albeit only mentioning a few of their multitude of awards), why not the Oscars?
You'd make the announcement on a Tuesday or Wednesday night in January -- not sweeps month, so rather than air repeats on ABC, air a nomination special.
This being said, airing it in primetime wouldn't allow the nominations to be something that airs on all stations across-the-board seeing as how NBC, CBS, and all the cable news stations air the nomination announcement now. Does the Academy look at that wide coverage proliferation as making them seem more "important?"
However, I did a quick read-through of Goldstein's article and he mentions showing clips throughout the show of possible nominees like Jean Dujardin, etc. I can't see the Academy getting behind this prospect, however, as it would seem as if the Academy is supporting a certain film. While I can see clips of Oscars from 25 or 50 years ago, I can't see them doing anything about possible current nominees.
Although as I sit hear thinking about this, could they combine a nomination announcement with clips from the Governor's Awards? I'm still waiting for them to be televised at some point...
John Carter was fantastic, flaws and all
April 17, 2012 at 8:46PM EST Reply to CommentThe reason the NFL gets away with this is because of the unbelievable ratings it gets on a consistent basis. They changed the draft from a Saturday-Sunday Afternoon event to a primetime whole weekend special starting on Thursday evening. While many people watch the Oscars (unless its for NBC, which does not have the contract), it won't generate the ratings needed to put it on primetime, especially considering the blase attitude of most people in my age bracket, "18-35." I personally have the viewpoint of resident writer Mr. McWeeny on concern over the Oscars.
Kristopher Tapley Gotta at least give it a shot.
April 17, 2012 at 9:03PM ESTAl
April 17, 2012 at 9:11PM EST Reply to CommentDownside? No. But I do like waking up to the nominees.
Kristopher Tapley You could still do that with this. Just go to bed early.
April 17, 2012 at 9:53PM ESTgregel
April 17, 2012 at 9:59PM EST Reply to CommentActually Kris, I wrote about this over THREE YEARS AGO.
Kristopher Tapley Indeed, as noted, people have been tossing this idea around for years.
April 17, 2012 at 10:18PM ESTZach I talked about it 20 years ago. It was to no one of any importance and can't be verified, but, still: FIRST!
April 18, 2012 at 2:36PM ESTDB
April 17, 2012 at 10:56PM EST Reply to CommentI never thought about it, but it sounds like a good idea that's worth a try. However the notion of the nominees only being announced on TV and not posted online immediately doesn't work for me unless they announce every category in prime time. How can those of us who are just as interested in Best Art Direction as we are in Best Picture be expected to get a decent night's sleep if we can't find out the full slate of nominees until sometime the next day?!?
Kristopher Tapley Well, no, I'm saying publish the full slate of nominees after the special.
April 17, 2012 at 11:15PM ESTRobert
April 17, 2012 at 11:30PM EST Reply to CommentI always thought this was an interesting idea, but I've never been able to grasp how it would actually manifest itself.
The major categories wouldn't lend themselves to more than a 30 minute show. You could expand it, then again there's enough talk for the ceremony about why people tune in to watch a show that's 75% focused on categories that most people care about, to extend that same basic problem to a nominee show.
I feel like if this isn't being done, it's because AMPAS and ABC fear giving the public another opportunity to give them underwhelming ratings.
/3rt
April 18, 2012 at 1:37AM EST Reply to CommentAnnouncing the nominees in the morning is Christmas time for me. As an adult unless you're getting morning sex there's not too much to get excited about early in the morning. When you were a kid it was Saturday morning programming aimed at you or Christmas morning. As a gay man I need nominations in the morning.
Sijmen
April 18, 2012 at 3:39AM EST Reply to CommentThis is what I would do: announce the nominees at the Academy's Governor's Awards in november and have the ceremony halfway january. (of course, this means it would be about the movies released in november the previous year until october this year.)
It would make Award Season less predicatble, shorter and hence more fun.
THE Diego Ortiz
April 18, 2012 at 2:21PM EST Reply to CommentI would rather just have my night ruined instead of my entire day ruined when I find out that Nolan/Rises didn't get nominated.