Will Smith slaps actor Chris Rock in the face during the 94th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California on March 27, 2022.
Robyn Beck | AFP | Getty Images
The 94th Academy Awards on Sunday was already a clumsy attempt at ratings before soon-to-be Oscar winner Will Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage.
The event should have been a celebration of diversity. Ariana DeBose became the first queer woman of color to win an acting award, Troy Kotsur became the first deaf man to win an Oscar for acting, and Jane Campion became the third woman to win the directing category.
It should have been a turning point for the streaming industry, too. AppleTV+’s “CODA” was the first film by a streamer to win the Best Picture award.
Instead, audiences will remember the 2022 Academy Awards when an actor nominee slapped a presenter for making a blatant joke about his wife.
The show drew approximately 15.36 million viewers, according to preliminary national ratings from Nielsen reported by . That doesn’t include the outside of the home display, which will be added in the final figures released on Tuesday.
Those early numbers are higher than the final numbers of the 2021 ceremony, which hit an all-time low of 10.4 million viewers. However, according to THR, they’re still dramatically lower than traditional Oscar ratings. So the academy still has a lot to do.
Poor cut and paste work
Smith’s slap wasn’t the production’s only goof. The ceremony was overshadowed by controversy even before it began. The producers decided to present eight of the 23 awards before the live broadcast began, and later insert these winners into the show.
These awards came mostly from technical categories such as sound, score, editing and production design, but also included three short-time work categories. This prompted more than 70 industry titans, including composer John Williams and directors James Cameron and Guillermo del Toro, to petition the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and ABC, which aired the ceremony, to reverse the decision.
Instead, the eight winners in those categories were announced on Twitter during the red carpet celebrations, and then shoved with random cuts into the live broadcast to viewers, some of whom were still taking their seats for the show.
Not acknowledging these categories during the main show is a public repudiation of the often underappreciated crew members who are the bedrock of Hollywood and its movies. This is of particular concern given that less than six months ago Hollywood narrowly avoided a massive strike by film and television crews over poor pay and benefits.
The show’s producers claimed these categories were trimmed to reduce airtime, which often exceeds three hours. However, the show went on for a long time, surpassing the promised three-hour mark by nearly 40 minutes.
Perhaps even more intriguing was the producers’ decision to use the time saved by eight award winners missing the stage to insert two fan-voted honor awards for “Best Cheer” and “Fan Favorite Movie.”
Those online polls were meant to get audiences tuning in to the ceremony, but many scratched their heads when Zack Snyder’s “Justice League” won Best Fan Moment for Flash joining the Speed Force and Army of the Dead won Favorite Movie of 2021.
A trifecta of hosts cannot save the night
The show began with a performance by Beyoncé on the nominated song from King Richard, “Be Alive,” before transitioning into a triple monologue by Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall.
“This year, the academy hired three women to host because it’s cheaper than hiring a man,” Schumer said.
Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall host the 94th Annual Academy Awards.
ABC | General entertainment content from Disney | Getty Images
Schumer performed a second monologue after Sykes and Hall left the stage, and roasted nominated films like “Don’t Look Up” and “Being the Ricardos” to thunderous applause and laughter. She was the standout of the three hosts and could easily have hosted the show on her own.
Hall’s teeth, on the other hand, fell flat. Emerging alone later on in the show, she called Bradley Cooper, Timothee Chalamet, Tyler Perry and Simu Liu onstage for a Covid test gag, during which she dabbed “the back of your mouth with my tongue”.
She ended up tapping out Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa when they took the stage to present the next award. It elicited awkward laughter from the crowd and it was clear that not all contestants were happy with the bit.
Sykes was unforgettable. Her major solo performance consisted of a pre-taped trip to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures that elicited laughs but ultimately felt like what it was — an advertisement for a $482 million museum.
The presenters were mostly absent for the second half of the show, save for a brief moment when they each dressed up as a character from a nominated film. Sykes was dressed as Richard Williams from King Richard, Hall was dressed as Tammy Faye from The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and Schumer descended from the rafters dressed as Spider-Man from Spider-Man: No Way Home. “
Neither host appeared on stage immediately after the Smith Rock incident, but Schumer later attempted to inflate the crowd for the third hour after the room was deflated, but even their jokes weren’t enough to stop the to turn night .
The future of the Academy Awards
Fan-voted categories, live musical performances, and oddly upbeat “in memoriam” segments won’t save the Oscars from bad ratings.
All awards shows from music to television have suffered in recent years. Audiences have more choices than ever about how they spend their time and what entertainment they consume.
There are some who have shut down these shows because they don’t like watching celebrities make political and social statements, and some who have little interest because the nominated films are not considered mainstream.
Not to mention that younger viewers, many of whom have cut cable, aren’t quite as willing to sit through the traditional 16 to 20 minutes of commercials per hour that accompany a live TV show. A show that lasts more than three hours like the Oscars can mean an hour of commercials.
That doesn’t diminish the importance of the Oscars, however. Not only is it an honor bestowed upon by peers in the film community, it is also a financial boon. Nominees and winners can use their awards to earn better pay or get the green light for passion projects from major studios.
At this point, the Academy clearly cannot cater to both the film community and the mainstream cinema audience. Ratings will not return to the levels they were a decade ago, and the current strategy of attracting interest is not working. In fact, it alienates and angers the very people it is meant to celebrate.
The 2017 Oscars will be remembered because La La Land accidentally won Best Picture instead of Moonlight, which actually won. The 2021 show is marred by the production, assuming the late Chadwick Boseman would win Best Actor and place the award at the end of the ceremony. The 2022 Oscars will also be remembered for a slap in the face.
Not this queer woman of color who made a passionate statement about accepting her identity, or a deaf actor humbly accepting an award on behalf of his community. Not for a woman succeeding in a category traditionally won by men. Not for a streamer to win the best picture trophy and potentially hasten an already dramatic shift in the industry.
But for a hit.