Actor Seth Rogen doesn't think people care about the Oscars anymore. Rogen is the comedic actor of such hits as Knocked-Up, Superbad, Observe and Report, This is the End, Neighbors, and Long Shot. He's also the producer of shows like Preacher, The Boys, and Invincible, as well as a new animated version of the popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. Rogen is currently appearing in the Hulu mini-series Pam & Tommy.
The Academy Awards, also known as The Oscars, is an annual awards show put on by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which is meant to recognize the best films of the year. Winners are chosen by members of the academy, which numbers just over 7,000 members, who vote on the nominees. The winners are announced during an annual telecast where the winners are given an engraved golden trophy and typically give a speech. The telecast began in 1929 and has continued ever since. However, in recent years, the Oscars telecast has been sinking in ratings, with the most recent telecast, the 93rd Academy Awards, being the lowest viewership recorded since 1974 with 10.4 million viewers.
Talking to Insider, Rogen says that he doesn't understand Hollywood's obsession with getting everyone to love the Oscars, saying, "I don't get why movie people care so much if other people care what awards we give ourselves." The actor goes on to speculate that it's possible that people simply just don't care about the awards anymore, similarly to how people don't care about awards in other industries. Rogen says that maybe people cared at one point, but that perhaps that time has passed. Here's Rogen's full quote:
"To me, maybe people just don't care. I don't care who wins the automobile awards. No other industry expects everyone to care about what awards they shower upon themselves. Maybe people just don't care. Maybe they did for a while and they stopped caring. And why should they?"
The 2021 Oscars were considerably downsized and constrained due to the pandemic, but the 2022 Oscars look to fare much better in terms of releases to choose from, although those choices have already caused controversy. In 2018, the Academy attempted to create a new category called Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film, which was an attempt to help increase ratings by having a category that represented box office success and popularity over critical reception. The plan was canceled after online backlash called it pandering for ratings, making the situation even more controversial. Beyond that, finding the right format and hosts for the telecast has been consistently controversial, including a constant rotation of inconsistent hosts.
Rogen isn't wrong about the Oscars. As far as ratings go, the telecast is irrefutably losing viewership at a dramatic level. The question, of course, is why, but the answer isn't as complex as some may think. 7,000 people deciding the best of their industry each year is fine, but Hollywood has typically leaned on audience interest in the show to help fuel the box office and keep interest high in the industry. However, recent years have seen Hollywood selecting films that most viewers don't care about, let alone ever see, forcing them to watch an overstuffed telecast of clunky humor, questionable performances, preachy and political speeches, with controversial wins that ignore the films people really care about, such as this year's snubs of Spider-Man: No Way Home and No Time To Die. There's always the possibility that the Oscars could turn it all around, but there's a lot of work to be done to get people invested again.
Source: Insider