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Oscars

ABC and The Academy weren't shy about their desires to make the Oscars seem more relatable. They've made several attempts over the years, but yesterday was a true kitchen sink moment.

Janelle Monae's opening act represented several "popular" movies. Chris Rock came back to give yet another slew of #OscarsSoWhite jokes. Eminem randomly performed his 2002 Oscar-winning song "Lose Yourself." Utkarsh Ambudkar pulled a Skillz and did a mid-show rap to recap the awards given. And to top it all off, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith brought his First Take, talking heads analysis to the show's post-game recap. It was the mashup no one asked for, no one needed, but makes sense in the context of the Oscars' goals.

For the past decade, the Oscars has wanted to seem more relatable with the "in" culture. The show lost one-third of its viewership since 2014. And while most broadcast programming has suffered a similar decline in the digital streaming and social media era, these broadcasts look inward to solve their challenges. Hip-hop is popular culture. That won't stop anytime soon. According to Forbes, and contrary to common beliefs, Gen Z is much more likely to tune in to the Oscars than millennials, Baby Boomers, or Gen X.

The actual Oscars show was still a mess and felt off-balance, but it accomplished its mission. The Slim Shady performance was the top social moment from the show. It was a surprise guaranteed to yield strong reactions —one way or another—from the audience. Before the show, the producers could have nearly guaranteed that Martin Scorsese's reaction to Eminem's performance would be a GIF-able moment. (I could hear Marty in my head watching "Lose Yourself" and saying this isn't cinema. Or Billie Eilish's reaction to anything. These subtleties drive interest over time.

Despite these attempts, the Oscars still face two challenges in achieving its goals of relatability increasing viewership, interest, and money for ABC.

First, GIF-able moments and social media commentary are far more valuable with on-demand content or ticketed experiences. Clips of Joaquin Phoenix dancing on the "Joker steps" drove more people to buy tickets for the movie. Memes from Bird Box got more people to watch the Netflix movie. But it's tough to monetize Eminem's surprise performance. Sure, people may tune in who weren't planning to already, but there's a finite time horizon. The live broadcast ends in a few hours, and content isn't evergreen.

It's similar to a Super Bowl matchup. A close game in the 4th quarter may draw people in for the last 30 minutes, but it's rarely enough to make a sizable impact. The audience who already planned to watch is the one that's most likely to tune in.

Second, The Oscars is in less control of its brand than most other businesses. Most brands focus on the perception their customers have and the internal attempts to shape customer's perception. The Oscars are concerned about those two things AND the elephant in the room—the 8,000+ member voting Academy that can sway the brand's identity with the movies selected to win.

The Academy would never say this, but the programming is geared toward the audience that went wild on Twitter for Bong Joon-ho and Parasite's victories. It wants the audience that made fun of The Shape of Water, loved that Get Out won a screenplay Oscar*,* thinks Beyonce should have beat both Adele and Taylor Swift for the Grammy's Album of the Year, and so on. Next year, the Oscars could get Three 6 Mafia to do "Hard Out Here for a Pimp" and Terrance Howard to do "Whoop That Trick" from Hustle & Flow. It would dominate Black Twitter, and people would go wild! But if a movie like Green Book wins that same year, all that engagement goes out the window.