Jimmy Fallon Suggests An Excellent Alternative To Cutting Eight Big Oscars Categories From Telecast
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made quite a few waves among Hollywood professionals last week when they announced that they'd be cutting eight categories from their Oscars telecast, presesnting the awards before the public broadcast of the awards show begins. Those awards are:
- Documentary (Short Subject)
- Film Editing
- Makeup and Hairstyling
- Music (Original Score)
- Production Design
- Short Film (Animated)
- Short Film (Live Action)
- Sound
After intense backlash from many, including the American Cinema Editors' board of directors, and even members of the Academy itself, the APMAS released a statement clarifying their decision:
"They will not be presented in the pre-show nor on the red carpet, as some have speculated. Instead, the in-person ceremony at the Dolby Theatre will begin one hour earlier to present eight awards categories before the live telecast starts. Those presentations will then be edited by our creative and production teams and will be folded seamlessly into the live televised show.
"To be clear, all the nominees in ALL awards categories will be identified on air and ALL winners' acceptance speeches will be featured on the live broadcast....For the audience at home, the show's flow does not change, though it will become tighter and more electric with this new cadence, and the live broadcast should end - yes, with the Best Picture category - at the three-hour mark."
It is true that the Oscars broadcast has a tendency to run over, but many have questioned the decision to edit whole awards and speeches when there are clearly other alternatives - The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon, for example, suggested one on air:
"If they really want to shorten the broadcast, maybe just skip the part where someone explains what an actor is. An actor acts."
It does kinda seem like there's a whole lot of things they could cut before the awards for some of the most important - and underappreciated - categories in showbusiness, but we suppose we'll hold our judgement until show day. If those "seamlessly" edited segments end up being sad or truncated, the Academy is going to hear complaints.
