There may be fewer Americans glued to their televisions for four-plus hours Feb. 25 to watch the 79th Annual Academy Awards than in years past.
As millions of Americans flock to movie theaters each year and blogs and magazines continue to follow the every move of Tinseltown's most celebrated, what has contributed to the decline of interest in the highest honor in Hollywood?
Professor David Paletz, director of the Film/Video/Digital program, blames waning interest on the deteriorating quality of the actual Awards show.
"The Oscars have always been dubious," he said. "Take a look at the many mediocre films and showy performances that have won awards and, more importantly, the great films and subtle acting that hasn't won awards and should have."
David Karger, Trinity '95 and senior writer for Entertainment Weekly, focuses-for the better part of six months each year-solely on the Oscar race, and has a different take on why interest in the awards show is dwindling.
"I think something that's been happening lately that's been really troubling is how crowded and drawn-out the whole awards ceremony is," he said. "The Oscars used to be the only show in town, but now the Golden Globes, Screen Actor's Guild Awards and even the Broadcast Critics Awards are all televised. By the time the Oscars roll around they seem almost like an afterthought."
Karger thinks that the placement of the Oscars at the end of the awards show season does have an impact on who the recipients are, lending to the "popularity contest" theory of how the prizes are awarded.
He said Crash winning best picture over Brokeback Mountain was a huge surprise last year. But he also said the Academy only chose the former because they wanted to do something different than the Golden Globes, even though Brokeback may have been better.
The Academy Awards has also been criticized for the show itself being too outrageous. But the Academy seems to be addressing the problem with the hiring of Ellen DeGeneres as the show's host this year-a departure from more controversial past hosts such as Chris Rock and Jon Stewart.
Still, Paletz said, the choice isn't a sure bet.
"Ellen DeGeneres may surprise us by being less bland than expected," he said. "It depends on which Ellen shows up-the sitcom star or the talk show host."
Despite the recent criticisms of the Academy Awards, Karger said he still believes that the spirit of the awards show is genuine and important to American culture.
"I do still think that the Oscars' intentions are pure, and when the voters get their ballots they take it very seriously and think about how their votes are going to stand the test of time," he said.
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