March 4, 2010
5 Reasons to Watch The Oscars

The Oscars are on ABC this Sunday. I love award shows, I love complaining about award shows, and I love blogging about award shows. In the past, I've written a few diatribes about why TV networks and award-giving entities should make shows as participatory as possible, but this time, I think ABC and the Academy have tried very hard to create a strong social media presence. We'll see how it works out during the ceremony. And for the record, I'm still not sure if you'll be able to watch the entire Oscar telecast online, but you can catch the red carpet.

In case you're still ambivalent about the fashion, fabulousness, and boredom that is the Oscars, here are my top five reasons to watch the Oscars this year.
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5. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are hosting. They're both funny and they look great in tuxes.
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4. Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic are producing the show for the first time and they're promising levity!
I heard Shankman on Fresh Air. If the Oscar ceremony is half as entertaining as his interview with Terry Gross, we're in for a great show. Check it out if you get a chance.

3. Red Carpet Snark. Oscar snark has suffered greatly since Joan Rivers has left the scene. I miss Joan, so here are some of her greatest hits. Ryan Seacrest and Giuliana Rancic are hosting on E. Yawn. The best hope for some good Oscar snark is with the girls from Go Fug Yourself. They usually live blog award shows, so keep up with their site before Sunday night.

2. 10 Best Picture Nominees.

Ten films are nominated for best picture this year: Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire, A Serious Man, Up, Up in the Air.

After The Dark Knight didn't get nominated last year, the Academy decided to nominate ten films to make sure there were no glaring omissions. This year's slate of nominees includes some films that garnered both critical and box office success, including Up, District 9, and Avatar. The Blind Side was also nominated. At the risk of sounding like an east coast liberal, this film is neither innovative nor interesting. Sandra Bullock's performance is decent, but I have no idea why this cookie-cutter movie is being honored as one of the year's best.

The Academy hopes more people will tune into the ceremony since there's a better chance they've seen at least one of the ten nominated movies. It remains to be seen if more people will watch, but ratings for event TV are up across the board. The Super Bowl, Grammys, Emmys, and Golden Globes all attracted record numbers of viewers this year.

1. Talking about the Oscars. Talking about award shows is the best part of award shows. Talk about the Oscars on Twitter, on Facebook, or with the people sitting next to you. Tell me what you think in the comments or tweet @shelila.


1 Comments

On March 4, 2010 at 11:10 PM, Linda Murphy said:
 

Great article. Now I can't wait to see and talk about the Oscar show! I think DVRs are the best thing about awards shows. You can see all the good parts and skip the yawners. It usually brings the show down to about a 1/2 hour!