Producers of last night's telecast of the 96th annual Academy Awards pulled off the almost impossible task of ending the usual marathon-length show on time at 10:30 p.m. The tightly choreographed gala started earlier than usual—7:00 p.m. ET—on ABC, because of (according to the Academy, at least) Daylight Savings Time.
While most of the winners were predictable, the show did its best to keep audiences in the Dolby Theater and at home entertained with producers determined to defy the critics who complain every year about the show’s length, (the longest Oscars telecast was in 2002, clocking in at four hours and 23 minutes).
Billie Eilish and Ryan Gosling performed showstoppers from “Barbie,” with Eilish taking home the trophy for “What Was I Made For.” However when it came to the rivalry that was marketed and hyped as “barbenheimer” last summer, Oppenheimer (predictably) had already won when nominations were announced, and it confirmed its artistic dominance by capturing seven of its 13 nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor to Robert Downey Jr.—surprisingly his first—after two previous nominations.
Early data from AdImpact indicates that viewership for last night’s Oscars peaked at 20 million around 9:30 p.m. ET when Ryan Gosling performed `I’m Just Ken’ according to AdImpact.
The majority of viewership took place on linear television (67%), followed by streaming (19%), YouTube TV (12%) and YouTube (2%), AdImpact said.
Host Jimmy Kimmel returned for what is perhaps the most unforgiving job in Hollywood as the show’s host, keeping politics and controversy at a minimum, particularly as the show continues to lengthen its distance from the disastrous 2022 Oscars which saw Will Smith assaulting host Chris Rock.
But given the world (and domestic) events of the past 12 months, that was going to be impossible. Both the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the war in Gaza were mentioned in numerous speeches (and in at least one powerful commercial from the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism).
And of course, this being an election year, Kimmel couldn’t resist after presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump ranted about Kimmel’s performance on his Truth Social network. Kimmel read the tweet (or whatever they’re called), responding with “Isn’t it past your jail time?”
The show also gave long overdue recognition to stunt actors with Gosling and Emiiy Blunt paying homage to the “unsung heroes who risk life and limb for the cinema.”
Perhaps the most meme-worthy moment came early in the broadcast when the Oscars attempted to commemorate a little bit of history by recognizing the 50th anniversary of another famous controversial moment in 1974. That broadcast was briefly interrupted by a man in the buff running across the stage, in what was the popular fad of “streaking” at the time (and eliciting what is arguably the wittiest ad lib in the history of the show’s broadcasts from English actor David Niven… look it up).
John Cena, professional wrestler, author and star of the new Amazon Prime series “Ricky Stanicky,” reluctantly appeared on stage in his birthday suit wearing nothing but the winner’s envelope for Best Costume Design and perhaps doing his best to help the Oscars “break the internet” for one brief moment.
Last year's actors and writers strike was acknowledged early in the telecast. Although the work stoppage ended last November, contract negotiations between studios and technical workers are about to get underway, to which Kimmel declared his support: “Know that in your upcoming negotiations we will stand with you.” Since most movies were already in the can or post prior to last year’s strikes, the walkouts had little to no visible effect on last night’s nominations but the impact could be felt for a number of coming years.
