Matthew McConaughey

For those of you who thought that the Oscars were for our parents generation, think again. The Oscars have actually been growing in viewers over the last several years. This is largely do to Craig Zadan and Neil Meron the winning duo that has been putting it all together. In fact this years Academy Awards were the most watched Oscars in 14 years, with almost 45 million viewers.

There were more than 1 billion impressions generated on Twitter and 25 million interactions on Facebook. Ellen DeGeneres’ selfie (including Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper and other attendees) became the most retweeted photo of all time with 32.8 million views. Interest in the show was also boosted by musical performances by Pharrell Williams and U2.

So the Oscars are bringing the dynamic duo back. The President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Cheryl Boone Isaacs, just announced that Craig Zadan and Neil Meron’s  “showmanship has elevated the show to new heights and we are excited to keep the momentum going with this creative partnership.” So expect more of the same next year.

The Oscars should bring back the show producers Zadan and Meron, because they have definitely thought of ways to boost the Oscars entertainment value. And yet here at the Global Trend, we all still regretfully thought the award ceremony was a bit like waiting in a doctors office, kind of a boring anticipation.  Wait hold up. This is no insult on the Zadon or Meron or the award winners or anyone else. It’s just that the notion of awarding people for 3 or 4 hours no matter how spectacular they are, can not help but be boring.

Perhaps there should be a change? If you really want to get people’s attention in this attention deficit generation then stick to the good parts. The TV broadcast should be one hour, ok, maybe an hour and a half of highlights. It should be a montage of the best parts. Of course you have to show the biggest awards (best actor, best film, best director, etc.) and bring out all the big stars (Angelina Jolie, Leonardo DiCaprios, etc.). And then they should rightfully give credit to all the nameless faces of  the other awards that make a difference too (special effects, costume, animation, documentary, foreign language film).  We don’t care, show it all!! Just make it fit in to 1 hour and a half. Is this too much to ask from the the most creative industry on the planet. We don’t think so.