The 91st Annual Academy Awards (pictured above) took on the unusual tactic of proceeding without a host. Following the night’s success, all award shows should consider revamping their programs and eliminating the role of moderators (Courtesy of Creative Commons).
After Kevin Hart renounced his opportunity to host the 91st annual Academy Awards and the Academy decided to go ahead without a host, many viewers were wary about the broadcast. Nevertheless, the ceremony on Sunday Feb. 24 proved to be successful and quite possibly changed the future of award shows.
Instead of hiring a comedian or other big-name star to throw in some completely unnecessary jokes and jabs at the audience, award shows should follow the example set by this year’s Oscar’s and stop looking for hosts.
Following their lowest ratings ever in 2018, the need for change in the Oscar’s telecast was abundantly clear. While the host is meant to streamline the broadcast and give it some cohesion, they mostly just add time onto the already lengthy, drawn-out night.
“Most years, the hosts vanish for long stretches after the monologue, and the performance feels like stand-up interruptus,” according to The New York Times.
Rather than waste time on jokes that often fail to land, by eliminating a host, the show was able to run significantly shorter. The network pushed for an in-and-out, three hour run time, having this year’s awards only go over by 17 minutes.
With all this pressure to keep things orderly and swift, combined with a lack of a host, viewers were worried it would become mechanical and simply a reading of winner after winner.
While it’s true some of the most memorable Oscar moments have been carefully crafted by the hosts, such as Ellen DeGeneres’s famous selfie from 2014, the 2019 awards prove that these moments can exist without a host.
The broadcast kept its momentum through a string of mini-hosts, rather than one almighty. For example, Keegan-Michael Key floated down from the ceiling with an umbrella to introduce Bette Midler, while Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s duet “Shallow” wasn’t introduced at all. They simply stood up from their seats and sang, creating one of this year’s most notable moments.
Perhaps award shows should return to their roots and remember the purpose for coming together: to honor extraordinary talent. Having no host to distract from the entertainers being honored allows time for them to do what they do best: perform.
“When the Grammy’s suddenly got great a few years ago—a shocking development, after years of sludgery—part of their winning strategy was giving out fewer awards and made more room for the stars to do their thing,” Rolling Stone magazine argued.
For the Oscars, this may mean devoting a little less time to strained comedy and showing more highlights of the hard work from all professionals within the film industry, not just the actors.
At the end of the day, award shows need to consider who their target audience is if they want to remain relevant. If people wanted to watch a straight white male comedian—like Jimmy Kimmel for the past two years in a row—make political and pop-culture fueled jokes, they would tune in to a late-night show.
Award shows like the Oscars are losing credibility every day, but perhaps by losing the host and refocusing the evening, they can begin to return to their former coveted status. There is nothing wrong with letting the performers take control of the evening to create their own memorable moments that they let us in on.