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).
