Yeah, and having some award presenters present the award to the winner IN the audience is incredibly weird. That's like MTV/American Idol style where presenters/hosts are often always randomly standing in the audience talking, which is stupid. *sigh* This is going to be bad.

PEACE, Mike

So, is that going to be like a pass-the-mic sort of deal, where the presenter will run over to the winner and hand them the mic . And then the person, I assume, will stand and give an acceptance speech. Except, you completely remove them of that priveleged on-stage position, where they can see all their peers and give some shout outs as is often done in the speeches. Now the winners will have to jump around to spot their fellow cast members, or those people who they found inspiring. And how will they be cut off if their speech runs too long. Will the presenter grab the freakin mic back from them?

The more you think about it, the dumber it seems.

It's just sacrilegious.

The worst thing is, I don't see how the changes will save time. I'd cut the songs, since they should be treated almost equally as best picture nominees and spreaded out over the entire show like that. Very few film songs are memorable these days. They could just announce it early and have the winner performed on stage. They also don't need to do the retrospective things each year where they look back the winners in history. Save those for 80th or 100th anniversary.

If they want to save time just say buh bye to those irksome song and dnace numbers, forever..no cirque de soleil and oher BS like that.

I think its sad that the winners won't all get their time on stage, though that will be less "I thank God" speeches.

I don't know if the show Inside Edition got their info mixed up or not, but they said that it's the MAJOR awards like Best Actor, etc... that will be having all of the nominees standing up onstage as the winner is announced.

Do they think this is the Miss America pageant or something? This is just a terribly thought out solution to time issues. :???:

And the slide continues.

Oscar, this is Beyonce. Beyonce, this is Oscar. #-o

http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000791236

Beyoncé, Groban Teaming For Oscars

Josh Groban and Beyoncé will perform the Oscar-nominated song "Believe" together at the 77th annual Academy Awards ceremony, Billboard.com has learned. Written by Glen Ballard and Alan Silvestri, the track is from the movie "The Polar Express" and was performed by Groban on its soundtrack.

Although the performers for this year's Oscars, to be held Feb. 27 at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, have not been officially announced, sources say that Counting Crows and Minnie Driver are also expected to perform.

I agree with everyone here, these are horrible choices. You know what? Let them go ahead, ruin it for everyone, and have the show bomb so hard that they will never ever consider doing this stuff again. Ever!


Ratings will be down anyways; there is no ROTK to crown, and frankly, most don't give a damn about the films that were nominated.

Someone brought up the point that this year's 5 Best Picture nominees are very interesting. There's no doubt about that but so are some of the Animated Shorts.

And I think that's where the problem lies and where this whole facelift started. Those behind the AMPAS, Gil Cates, execs at ABC, they're all worried that no one will tune in this year since there aren't any breakout films, no smash hits.

What they fail to realize is that some people watch the show religiously. It doesn't matter who's nominated.

There's no need to overhaul the show to this degree. It won't lure in casual tv viewers.

Oscar hopes to shake up show, reputation
By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES — Faced with dwindling numbers of young viewers and a reputation for being stodgy, the Oscar telecast is changing, and it could look a lot like the Chris Rock show.

The first-time host will enjoy a stage that juts out into the audience to better suit his walk-and-talk style, organizers say. And they're planning other shake-ups to the Feb. 27 telecast, including bringing all nominees on stage for some awards and presenting some statuettes to winners in the audience.

"It's going to be a much more interactive experience," says Chuck Warn, spokesman for Oscar telecast producer Gil Cates. "The new setup will allow Chris to prowl the stage, react to the audiences, just as he has done in his stand-up routines," popular on college campuses.

Cates has even asked the stars to loosen up, suggesting that the nominees think of "one unexpected thing" to say in their acceptance speeches. He also is requesting that the celebrities attend a 10-minute rehearsal before the telecast, unusual for stars who are not presenting awards.

Organizers still have to overcome a slate of films that has yet to produce a blockbuster at the box office, and some nominees who are relatively unknown to the public.

None of the best-picture nominees —The Aviator, Million Dollar Baby, Neverland, Ray and Sideways— has taken in more than $100 million. And several acting nominees are from such little-seen movies as Being Julia, Vera Drake and Maria Full of Grace.

"They only way you'd have guaranteed a big audience is if Passion of the Christ and Fahrenheit 9/11 were squaring off for best picture," says Brandon Gray of BoxOfficeMojo.com. "Now they need something else to stay relevant."

But can organizers persuade nominees to stand on stage together, like beauty pageant contestants, waiting for the winner to be announced? The academy plans to send out letters explaining the changes.

"Remember, these are people nominated for Academy Awards," Warn says. "They're pretty happy right now. I'm guessing they'll be eager to participate in anything we do."

But Tom O'Neil, author of Movie Awards, isn't so sure. Keeping some Oscar winners in the audience "is just humiliating to anybody who is not being called fully to the party. You're being cheated out of your moment at the podium, at the pedestal, in front of your peers. There's something about being at center stage, bathed in the spotlight, that is part of this showbiz rite of being honored."

Hallelujah! Finally someone speaks up. At least one person is smart.

PEACE, Mike

Now, they are having a time delay???

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... e_oscar_dc

When has foul language and "wardrobe malfunctions" ever been an issue with the kind of group that goes to the Oscars? A few political comments is the worst I can remember ever happening.

I have an idea: put it on HBO and cut out the damn commercials. That'll speed it up.

Man, it's like a car accident that you just can't look away from .

I KNOW! It will be absolutely amazing.

The reason Oscar telecasts last longer is because there is more commercial time per hour of "programming" than there was in the past. Shows can be edited to be a little shorter these days, but the Oscars have the same ground to cover. And a lot of that "programming" time is taken up by "You're watching the Oscars, we'll be right back"-type footage.

If putting nominees on the stage is a logisitcs problem, what about the presenter in the audience?

• Is the presenter going to talk from the audience?
• Or is the presenter going to be on stage, and some tech guy in the audience is going to just hand off the mike?
• Is the presenter/mike guy going to know who the winner is in advance so they can sit closer to the winner?
• Are they going to seat the nominees all next to each other so nobody can guess who's going to win?
• Or are they going to have 5 guys in the audience, each one next to a nominee, and the one next to the winner hands off the mike?

What a mess..



The poor tech guys can't leave their seats, but Chris Rock gets to walk and talk? THIS is their idea of "saving time?" WTF?

If they want to save time, I think they should cut out all the hosts announcing each other. Mr. Voice announces Mr. Host. Mr. Host announces Mr. and Ms. Presenter. The audience applauds for Ms. Presenter's costume. Then Mr. and Ms. Presenter read crap off the TelePrompTer. Only THEN does anybody get around to announcing the nominees. This happens every time there's a commercial, every time an award is done, every time somebody cracks a joke, etc. Infuriating.