Awards Season 2021

[Toland's Mitchell]

Wait - in the delayed pre-taped awards they didn't mention the other nominees in each category? That's even worse if so.

I may be wrong about that. Maybe it varied by category, but I don't remember exactly since the Rock/Smith altercation stole all the attention. But my point remains that the below-the-line pre-taped awards decision failed to shorten the show to its desired running time.

[lacritfan]

Reports actually seem to be saying that ratings were up over last year and peaked before the slap.

TV Ratings: Oscars Rebound From Historic Lows

[captveg]

Reports actually seem to be saying that ratings were up over last year and peaked before the slap.

TV Ratings: Oscars Rebound From Historic Lows

Interesting. Looks like that previous info I was provided was incorrect.

[Apperson]

Reports actually seem to be saying that ratings were up over last year and peaked before the slap.

TV Ratings: Oscars Rebound From Historic Lows

Looking at the ratings for the 2020 (Parasite) Oscars, They pulled in a 23.6 million viewer average, thats compared to a 15.36 average this year and a 10.4 average last year based on the quoted article.

Comapre that to the Primetime Emmys where, going by Wikipedia for the respective ceremonies, they went 6.9, 6.36, and 7.83 from 2019-2021. This is all to say that these are still really bad numbers and haven't recaptured the audience that left from 2019 whilst other shows and events have.

[hearthesilence]

I thought Smith would go home after the show but apparently he went to the Vanity Fair party where he was seen dancing and even performing for the crowd. Then I saw a friend get accused of being a misogynist racist on the basis that decrying an assault was synonymous with defending a joke made at the expense of an African-American woman. (FWIW, this accusation was coming from a Caucasian woman.) Social media's killing my soul.

[soundchaser]

Well, whether or not the slap was ok/justified is currently being argued loudly by staff in the back of the urgent care I’m sitting in, so:
a) leaving social media won’t insulate you from it
b) we live in Hell.

[therewillbeblus]

a) You alright, soundchaser?
b) Chris Rock declined an opportunity to file a police report/press charges, so that (in)action makes it kinda reinforces social media to be the place to sort out “justice” now, for better or worse (definitely worse)

[soundchaser]

Yeah, I’m fine — have a few throat/sinus issues that refuse to go away, so I’m just checking to see what’s going on. Thank you for asking!

The difference in reaction I’ve seen/heard from women, especially, has been…interesting.

[therewillbeblus]

Haha you have something to listen to of some anthropological interest I guess- I was in the ENT’s ER a couple weeks ago and my only amusement was listening to a college student complaining on the phone for an hour about how she’s the only person she knows who doesn’t complain. Hope you get some answers/treatment!

The thing is, if anyone voting in favor of Smith’s actions had a loved one in Rock’s position, they’d change their opinion around immediately. We’ve lost all ability to take perspective, and that moral superiority (me and mine would never do that!) is a mirage

[HJackson]

Watching it back, it is interesting that Rock actually seems relatively unfazed by the slap itself. That’s been the focus of all the discourse and whether or not physical violence is ever acceptable - but Rock keeps a smile on his face, makes a jocular comment just acknowledging that it happened, and looks like he’s getting ready to get back on script. There’s almost a vague attitude of “maybe I had that coming” and a very generous willingness to just roll with it.

He doesn’t really lose his composure or seem shaken until after his assailant interrupts again to verbally harass him in a menacing and bullying tone that suggests the threat of continuing violence. I wonder how this would have played out in the media and on social media if Smith had just sat back down and let Rock get back on with his act.

[soundchaser]

It would have looked like a (very tasteless) staged bit, in that case.

[therewillbeblus]

Or maybe Rock wanted to save face as most of us would in the public spot of being on stage and camera in front of the world. Maybe when he looked over to the side, he expected the support of security and the Academy to intervene because it’s… their job, and violence like that is… illegal? The onus is not on Rock to have a public meltdown to let social media know he’s hurting so they can sympathize and play jury. He was clearly and horrifyingly unsupported by his peers and the people in power of the ceremony itself- no wonder he didn’t file a police report. The longer I sit with this, I’m finding myself disgusted with the Academy far more than any other party

[hearthesilence]

Re: HJackson's post, I don't think that diminishes what happened to the point where it's okay. Speaking from another experience, I was attacked on a subway once. The only thing that saved me was that I saw the guy coming and instinctively rolled my head really quickly right when he threw a punch at me. It wound up glancing off my head so it was just a red mark under my bangs that went away by the next day, but the guy was very unbalanced (possibly on something) and thought he did much more damage. I had to walk into someone's home after that and didn't mention it, and it's likely they thought nothing was wrong. But it sure as hell was wrong to me, even if I didn't pause my life altogether at that moment. (Also what twbb said is right too.)

Anyway, besides Eilish, it looks like Johnny Marr gets an Oscar as well for working on that recording. (I think I got that right...I know Adrian Belew surprisingly got an Oscar for some short he worked on a few years ago.)

And of course Questlove winning is great but it had the bad luck of immediately following that ugliness...

[Toland's Mitchell]

The small TV ratings rebound isn't a surprise. Other recent live events, such as the Emmys and Super Bowl, also saw an improvement over their 2020-21 lulls, but did not recapture pre-pandemic numbers. I guess this means the efforts to win back audiences had a small success.

In regards to the Rock/Smith incident, my two cents is it was a case of 'two wrongs don't make a right.' It was a bad, tasteless joke that should not have been said, and it's understandable why Will and Jada were offended. Will definitely should not have retaliated that way. I'm not on either one's side. I think the producers or some members of the academy should have stepped in and done something afterward, instead of sweeping it under the rug and pretending it didn't happen. That left an aura of awkwardness for the rest of the night, made all parties look bad, and took away the spotlight from each subsequent winner. But I don't agree with either extreme, from Haddish's defense of Will, to calls that Will should have been arrested on the spot and taken to jail. I think it'd be best if the two men simply apologized to each other. They had a chance to do so last night before Will's horribly awkward win and acceptance speech, but alas. I can see the two doing a presentation together next year as some have suggested, if things play out in that direction.

[therewillbeblus]

I also refuse to believe that Chris Rock -who surely holds the opinion of the majority of comedians that imposing restrictions on comedy bits is problematic and it should be a completely free art form- would think he had violence coming to him by making a joke. He probably welcomes hecklers and expects them to climb the stage to assault him every time he does stand up too.

[pianocrash]

Oh wow, I went to sleep right after the Oscars and am only now being reminded that I have to choose a film. I won't put too much thought into it because I'll go crazy and pick a film by a nominee this year that has been on my mind a lot lately (both before and after William Hurt's passing) — Steven Spielberg's AI. Hope it hasn't been discussed at length before but if it's not a good pick please tell me and I'll go with something else. One of my favorite films and one I can't get tired of reading about.

Congratulations on the win! But you also may have inadvertently created a prompt out of this whole thread for the next Dasha Nekrasova movie, since Chris Rock does make a cameo in A.I.

[colinr0380]

Who Is Chris Rock?

[Black Hat]

next Dasha Nekrasova movie

under my bangs

Dasha, is that you?

[felipe]

The small TV ratings rebound isn't a surprise. Other recent live events, such as the Emmys and Super Bowl, also saw an improvement over their 2020-21 lulls, but did not recapture pre-pandemic numbers. I guess this means the efforts to win back audiences had a small success.

In regards to the Rock/Smith incident, my two cents is it was a case of 'two wrongs don't make a right.' It was a bad, tasteless joke that should not have been said, and it's understandable why Will and Jada were offended. Will definitely should not have retaliated that way. I'm not on either one's side. I think the producers or some members of the academy should have stepped in and done something afterward, instead of sweeping it under the rug and pretending it didn't happen. That left an aura of awkwardness for the rest of the night, made all parties look bad, and took away the spotlight from each subsequent winner. But I don't agree with either extreme, from Haddish's defense of Will, to calls that Will should have been arrested on the spot and taken to jail. I think it'd be best if the two men simply apologized to each other. They had a chance to do so last night before Will's horribly awkward win and acceptance speech, but alas. I can see the two doing a presentation together next year as some have suggested, if things play out in that direction.

I get that "two wrongs don't make a right". But I would hate to see Rock apologizing for a joke after having been physically assaulted. Also, I would hate to see Rock apologizing to Smith considering the joke was not about him.

[therewillbeblus]

I wish he had pressed charges, so that the actual (non-social media) justice system could clearly brand this as cut-and-dry physical assault and issue a relatively objective consequence for it

[felipe]

It's head-scratching that it still went longer than 3.5 hours even with 8 categories pre-recorded and edited into the show.

I suppose the question is : imagine how long would it have been without this change.

Doesn't seem like it would have added much time. They showed the acceptance speeches. The trims were the reading off the names of the noms, and the winners' walks to the stage. Big whoop. It was a controversial decision, as it disrespected below-the-line workers, when the Oscars are the supposed to be an event where they get their due. I opposed that decision even though I understood it. The least the Academy could do was achieve their goal of trimming the show to less than 3 hours. Where did the extra time come from? Lose-lose situation, not even accounting for the Rock/Smith incident.

I completely opposed this decision when I first read it, but I actually thought the show flowed way better like this.

The trims were the reading off the names of the noms, and the winners' walks to the stage.

If you think about it, it also cuts presenter x being announced on stage, entering the stage and talking about how important that category is. All in all, I guess it cuts some 5 minutes per category.

[knives]

I wish he had pressed charges, so that the actual (non-social media) justice system could clearly brand this as cut-and-dry physical assault and issue a relatively objective consequence for it

Yes I fully agree, but Rock probably knows his career would be damaged if he rocks the boat. Sadly the politics of the situation is to sweep it under the rug and be forced to play nice with your more powerful assailant. Smith is too big to jail.

[DarkImbecile]

I completely opposed this decision when I first read it, but I actually thought the show flowed way better like this.

The trims were the reading off the names of the noms, and the winners' walks to the stage.

If you think about it, it also cuts presenter x being announced on stage, entering the stage and talking about how important that category is. All in all, I guess it cuts some 5 minutes per category.

They also cut substantial portions of the winner’s speeches (and apparently didn’t even include those trimmed portions in the press transcripts)… and the show was still longer than last year’s.

[Brian C]

I wish he had pressed charges, so that the actual (non-social media) justice system could clearly brand this as cut-and-dry physical assault and issue a relatively objective consequence for it

Hard for me to agree with this … Rock appeared not to be hurt, there’s no reason to involve the justice system in what is a very minor dispute in the grand scheme of things. It would have been a rather pointless waste of public resources, and on top of that, I don’t think there would have been any chance in hell of “objective consequence” coming from it. Charges almost certainly would have been dismissed altogether because, who wants to bother. Certainly it would not be feasible for law enforcement to prosecute every slap that happens.

I’m far more sympathetic to the notion that Smith should have been removed from the theatre, but realistically, there was no chance of a black guy being led away by cops/security at *the Oscars*. And besides, by the time anyone had really figured out what was going on, Smith had sat back down and Rock had gotten on with the show. Removing him would have compounded the awkwardness for everyone involved.

Ultimately, it was a dick thing to do, but the biggest issue is the breach of decorum - the shocking sight of it happening during the Oscars. If Smith had confronted him backstage and smacked him off camera, it would be treated like simple gossip. And, I think, rightfully so.

[tenia]

Also, apparently the ratings were even lower than last year's, at least until the post-slap tune-in, which means the tape delay of eight awards and the moronic fan votes did absolutely nothing to get people to watch.

My wife says... "reconstituting this awards show to aim for a larger/younger audience is pointless because young people don't watch network TV."

Not exactly this point but I agree with the larger point this might fit into : there's something disjointed in what Oscars are supposed to do and what the Academy are currently running after. It seems in particular not to realise how much prestige it's losing by seeming mostly focused on the prestige they're losing.

In the end, they're basically trying to have their cake and eat it, having an ill-fitted Audience Award (we tried that in France, it lasted 3 years) that most likely didn't/won't change much, pointlessly removing technical awards in order to add a 2nd Encanto musical and a White Men Can't Jump hommage, and so many other incoherent stuff because they're stuck with a format they're too dependant upon but seemingly can't imagine living without. As a consequence, they can't think of a full revamping, but only small changes here and there, only making the whole thing more schizophrenic every year.

As for Rock's unphazed reaction, it seemed lost and wondering what the hell just happened while constantly thinking "we're live, this just happened live, and now I'm alone on stage". Basically he looks in shock from having been slapped live on-stage by Will Smith for a joke.