For the fourth time in seven years, Jimmy Kimmel hosted the annual Academy Awards ceremony last night at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles and televised on ABC.
Just why ABC brought Mr. Kimmel back isn’t much of a mystery. After all, ABC employs him five days a week as the host of the nightly “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” which is actually taped. However, in his three previous outings as host, Mr. Kimmel’s average TV audience was 26.1 million, less than half of the most watched Oscar telecast ever in 1998 (55.25 million), and well below the average (39.73 million) since 1974 when viewership numbers were announced.
With now four hosting gigs under his belt, Mr. Kimmel is in the same league as Whoopi Goldberg and the eminently classy Jack Lemmon. However, all three fall far short of past hosts Johnny Carson (5), Billy Crystal (9), and Bob Hope (a staggering 19 times).
Remember When …
I bring this up because there was a time when it was impossible to figure out on what side of the political fence the show’s host landed. It was a non-factor and ambiguous. No one cared in the least. For an event that once solely celebrated artistic achievement, the Oscars have devolved into a soapbox of personal grievances: nothing most audiences wish to see or hear.One of the evening’s biggest surprises was the level of restraint Mr. Kimmel exhibited during his opening monologue. He didn’t mention his frequent target, President Donald Trump, and launched just a single political joke, which landed with a thud. It’s worth noting Mr. Kimmel quoted a comment President Trump posted on Truth Social later in the broadcast.
Almost Politics-Free
Before the ceremony began, many pundits (me included) expected multiple mentions of the ongoing Israeli-Hamas conflict during acceptance speeches. The sole comment came from “The Zone of Interest” director Jonathan Glazer, a British-born Jew, who called for a cease-fire.The most pointed political barb of the night occurred during the “In Memoriam” segment. In an indirect barb to Russian President Vladimir Putin, it opened with a clip of late dissident Alexei Navalny who died in prison in February under dubious circumstances.
Rather than just an instrumental passage accompanying images of deceased performers and other industry professionals, the producers brought in Andrea Bocelli to perform his signature song, “I Will Leave With You“ (”Por Ti Volaré"), alongside his son, Matteo.
Equally entertaining in a completely different way was acting nominee Ryan Gosling, fully clad in pink, performing “I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie,” with guitarists Slash and Mark Ronson.
Not clad at all was actor John Cena who presented the award for Best Costume Design, appearing on stage in his birthday suit, with only a carefully placed envelope.
Also in the let’s-do-something-different department, the usual format of presenting the four acting awards was abandoned, where the previous year’s winner presents it. A new approach was opted with five past winners presenting in their respective categories. I, for one, hope this change becomes permanent.
Changes and Upgrades
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is not an organization known for making changes. But, after decades of outside pressure, it finally acquiesced by announcing the inclusion of “Best Achievement in Casting,” which will debut in 2025. Long referred to by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and all critics groups as “Best Ensemble,” this is long overdue and will be well received by both the acting community and general audiences.Of the four solo acting categories—actor, actress, supporting actor, and supporting actress—three were done deals. The sole category without a clear-cut frontrunner was Best Actress in a Leading Role. For reasons that escape me, most of my fellow critics (and SAG, the Golden Globes, and the National Board of Review) felt the near-comatose performance of Lily Gladstone in “Killers of the Flower Moon” was the most deserving. Luckily, AMPAS voters rightfully bestowed the award to Emma Stone for her otherworldly turn in “Poor Things.”
With a relatively lean running time of 3 hours, 23 minutes, last night was the shortest Oscar telecast since 2011, another big bonus.
The lion’s share of credit for the telecast’s overall success must be lavished on showrunner Raj Kapoor and returning British director Hamish Hamilton. This was Mr. Hamilton’s fourth outing helming the often unwieldy Oscar beast and his first since 2015. He and Mr. Kapoor should be made the permanent showrunner and director for as long as they see fit.
With 13 nominations and seven wins, “Oppenheimer” was the big winner of the night and was especially poignant for now two-time winning director-co-producer Christopher Nolan. A five-time past nominee, Mr. Nolan is one of the very few filmmakers in Hollywood history who produces consistently excellent movies that also generate hundreds of millions of dollars at the domestic and international box office.
All in all, last night was easily the best Academy Awards telecast of this century and one of the finest in Oscar history.
On Tuesday morning after the event, the ratings for the broadcast were released. The 19.5 million viewers were up from 18.8 million in 2023; this was the event’s third straight viewership increase. This uptick is surely due to the audience interest in the continuing “Barbenheimer” friendly feud for best picture. To date, “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” (both released on the same day last July) have grossed over $2.4 billion globally. Not once in the history of the Oscars have two of the Best Picture nominees in the same year performed as well at the box office.
