HOW TO FIX THE OSCARS

5/7/2021

The ratings decline affecting the Oscars has been going on for awhile. Legacy media in general is suffering, and it feels like the movies just don't matter like they used to. I want to propose how the awards show might reform itself so that it once again becomes a major cultural event for all. 

First, the Academy Awards needs to become way more online. It needs to be produced with an internet audience in mind because that’s where cultural relevance is shifting. So the Academy Awards should consider partnering with one of the streaming giants, and begin broadcasting the show on something other than network television. 

Second, a point that might seem obvious but is apparently not to the Oscars’ producers: what made Hollywood interesting was the glamor and personality of big stars. Increasingly, no one knows who the people at the Oscars are. This is because highly online people admire internet celebrities who are often not from within the Hollywood Industrial Complex. 

But it’s also because elite culture and mass culture have become detached from each other. What elites consider interesting and aesthetically admirable has always diverged from what the masses like, but it wouldn’t even be accurate to say the gap has widened. It’s more like there has been a schism. 

So my second proposal is for elite culture to self-consciously reattach itself to mass culture by inviting high profile internet figures to the ceremony, and asking them to participate in the programming. This includes YouTubers, Podcasters, and Twitch streamers. 

My third proposal, which is closely related the third, would be to integrate online celebrities into the Hollywood Industrial Complex beyond the awards themselves. If someone is blowing up on TikTok, why not put them in a blockbuster? Acting isn’t that hard, and it would introduce a generation of young people to the feeling of being excited to watch something at the movies. If and when a TikTok star is nominated for an Oscar, their fans might want to tune in and see whether their favorite celebrity wins.

A clever reader might notice that these proposals are all a restatement of the same idea. But a very clever reader will notice that they're not actually ideas about saving the Oscars at all.

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