The 97th Oscars took place on Sunday, March 2nd. While the event wasn’t an entire snoozefest, the event failed to bring the same level of entertainment and excitement we had experienced in previous years. In fact, many people didn’t even watch it this year. For some people keeping up with who are the winners and nominees is good enough without watching the entire event. Yes, but I don’t watch the awards. I follow who’s nominated, and I look up on TikTok and see who won what awards and their acceptance speeches, but I don’t like watching the Oscars,” said junior Jane Ellsworth.
When asked why this might be the case, Ellsworth explained, “They’re just really long, and there’s so much fluff in the middle that I’m not really interested in, and I’d rather be doing other stuff and then just watch the highlights later. And they’re kind of late, and I go to bed early.” Orchestra teacher Carie Albers had a similar opinion saying, “I go to bed super early. I get up super early, and I don’t watch a lot of television at all, let alone live TV. I only have streaming services.”
What was once a widely watched program, viewership in the past couple of years has been declining as the Oscars seems to be losing its sparkle.
What made this year’s Oscars different from previous ones wasn’t the possibility of cancellation due to the LA and Pasadena wildfires this past January—it was the lack of energy in the ceremony. The event went on as planned, it lacked the sparkle and excitement that makes the Oscars memorable year after year, failing to draw in an audience. While most of the night was not up to par with the previous Oscars, the musical performances ended up being a blast providing moments of enjoyment.
The night didn’t truly come to life until arguably one of the evening’s best performances—involving Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo medley of songs from the movie Wicked. Grande appeared in a red sparkling gown with a slipper attached to the back and sang Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz, followed by Erivo’s rendition of Home, Dorothy’s ballad from The Wiz. The performance ended with both artists singing the popular song from Wicked, Defying Gravity.
After this spectacular performance, host Conan O’Brien took the stage, delivering some jokes. Arguably, O’Brien made the show more entertaining; however, I wish he’d been able to come on more, because the rest of the show—aside from the musical performances—was lacking.
Another notable performance that night was the James Bond tribute featuring LISA’s cover of “Live and Let Die,” Doja Cat’s “Diamonds Are Forever,” and RAYE’s “Skyfall,” all of which brought a level of enjoyment and entertainment to the night. These musical performances were some of the few exciting moments in a rather disappointing night. However some people are questioning the relevance of these performances as no James Bond movie was released this year. It begs the question: were these performances really that necessary?
The last performance done that night came from American rapper and singer Queen Latifah, who delivered a rendition of “Ease on Down the Road” from “The Wiz” in honor of the late Quincy Jones. Dressed in a dazzling gold ensemble, she was joined by a group of dancers making the performance like a Broadway show.
Despite having a few amazing performances, the 97th Oscars failed to create the same excitement and engagement that was their past years, leading to a lack of viewership. If the Academy hopes to up the viewership in the ceremony they may need to rethink the program itself.