The Oscars were in slow times. They reached their audience peak in 2014: with Ellen and the famous selfie –yes, a decade already– they were seen by 43.7 million viewers in the United States. Since then they have gone downhill and without brakes to the minimum of 10.4 million viewers in 2021. In 2022 and 2023 the audience has increased, but has remained below 20 million. What the hell has happened when in 10 years you lose more than half of your audience? And, above all, how to try to recover it? Doing what they did in the last ceremony: a very balanced mix of spectacle, humor, emotion, nostalgia and reverence for cinema.
It has an influence, there is no denying it, having the fourteenth highest-grossing film of all time among the nominees. The Oscars could not be impervious to Barbenheimer’s enthusiasm. Hence, the most spectacular moment of the night was Ryan Gosling’s performance singing I’m Just Ken. And the funniest, the fight between Emily Blunt and Gosling himself, each defending his film. The most emotional, Sandra Hüller’s tears during Jonathan Glazer’s memorable speech when collecting the Oscar for best international film for The Zone of Interest. The cutest, the shot of Messi, the dog from Anatomy of a Fall. The great success: recovering five former winners in each acting category to present the nominees, something that was already done in 2009. And that so many presenters remember the cinema that we all know, from the Schwarzenegger twins and DeVito, making jokes about their respective villains in Batman, to John Mulaney summarizing the plot of Field of Dreams, through Kate McKinnon and America Ferrera mentioning Jurassic Park.
The Oscars have done to meet their audience, something that, unfortunately, was not shared by the Movistar Plus+ broadcast, which was too determined to attract audiences outside of cinema who are rarely going to stay in front of the TV early on a Monday, at the same time neglects its captive audience, those of us who watch the ceremony year after year knowing that knowledge of cinema, awards shows and red carpets is not only not incompatible with entertainment, but is essential in this café for coffee growers. It is normal for the Oscars in the United States to try to regain audiences. It would also be if the Spanish broadcast made an effort to please theirs.
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2024-03-12 05:12:40
#Captives #Oscars
