5 Steps to Fixing the Oscars

No more tweens, boring categories, unfunny hosts
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 8, 2010 11:52 AM CST
5 Steps to Fixing the Oscars
Host Alec Baldwin, right, and Steve Martin are seen on stage at the 82nd Academy Awards Sunday, March 7, 2010, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles.   (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

The Oscars tried really hard for a broader appeal this year—10 best picture nominees! A Neil Patrick Harris appearance!—but even so, Ramin Setoodeh is "having trouble remembering anything that happened during the lethargic 210-minute ceremony." He offers five ways the Oscars can really improve in the future in Newsweek:

  • Hire hosts who are actually funny: Joining the now decade-long tradition of hosts who have bombed, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin “opened the show like the old uncles at your family reunion.”

  • Keep the clips, but keep them short: Omitting the 15-second acting clips, shown when a nominee is announced, is not a good idea. But neither is what the Academy did this year, showing “a clip long enough to be a movie trailer, spliced together like a YouTube mash-up.”
  • Skip the tween presenters: “Do we really think fans of Miley Cyrus and Amanda Seyfried are going to sit through the whole boring telecast to catch a glimpse of their idols in fancy gowns? They have Twitter for that.”
  • Slash the boring categories: Or at least award them off camera. Likely candidates for the ax: best sound mixing, best sound editing, best costume design, best visual effects, "or any award with the word ‘short’ in it."
  • Incorporate a public vote: No, not on the actual categories. On anything. “People just want to be invested—this is why Idol is the No. 1 show on TV.”

(More Oscars stories.)

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