For filmmakers, winning an Oscar is the pinnacle of success at their craft. For 80 years now, the annual awards ceremony has been held in Los Angeles, and since the dawn of the TV era, the Oscars have mostly received excellent ratings.
But over the last few years the Oscars have gone in a strange direction. Viewership has been declining since the late 90s, and many critics feel that the 2008 ceremony was the worst produced — and most boring — Academy Awards ceremony ever.
One problem: the ceremony was essentially nothing more than clip after clip from various movies of the year. While watching clips from interesting movies can be worthwhile, too many of them in a row simply become tedious, and that was certainly the case last night. Early Nielsen results indicate that the 2008 Oscars will likely turn out to be the lowest rated Academy Awards ceremony in recent history.
Another big problem: many of the big winners last night were dark and brooding films that received critical acclaim but only moderate public support.
Jon Stewart was the host, making his second appearance on the Oscars. Overall, Stewart did a good job, though it was by no means his best work. Fans of Stewart’s “The Daily Show” on comedy central are aware of the comedian’s ability to think on his feet, and improvise hysterically funny comments and quips. However, the Jon Stewart we saw last night at the Oscars was markedly more subdued than his Comedy Central altar ego.
Stewart received criticism from his last hosting of the Oscars because of the political nature of many of his jokes. Fortunately though, the country has shifted politically somewhat since that time, and many of Stewart’s biting comments are now practically middle of the road political viewpoints.
One bright point for Stewart was when he joked that an African-American running against a female for the presidency of the United States means that “an asteroid is about to hit the statue of liberty.”
Overall, the failure of last night’s awards ceremony can not be blamed on Jon Stewart. The layout and direction of the ceremony was unusual and frankly awkward. The format of playing one extended film clip after the next seemed to suck the energy right out of the room, and at several points celebrity audience members looked visibly bored with the proceedings. Never a good sign.
So how can Tinseltown spice up the Oscars and improve the show’s ratings? Using hosts that appeal to younger audiences — such as Stewart — is a step in the right direction, but the academy needs to go much, much further. Shaking up the format of the ceremony would help significantly, including losing about 50% of the film clips. This is especially important in a year when so many of the big films have been gloomy and depressing by nature.
There’s no doubt about it; the Oscars is in a rut. Bringing in some new blood to produce and direct the show should be job number one on the Academy’s to-do list — that is if they plan on having anyone take notice of the ceremony next year.
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InformationWeek is reporting that the Writers Guild of America successfully negotiated a new three-year contract, which provides residual royalty payments for digital broadcasts and 2% of the advertising revenue from Internet distributed content. 
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