The New Oscars?

The Oscars started off well enough: The dresses were a triumph of understated elegance, Ellen DeGeneres was a generally enjoyable and thoroughly unobtrusive host,  the song by John C. Reilly, Jack Black and Will Ferrell garnered big laughs–and even Al Gore was funny.

And then the awards began.

This year, the Academy decided to make a change. They front-loaded the show with what are traditionally viewed as the more 'boring' Oscars–sound-editing, best live action short, best art direction– in order to, ostensibly, get them out of the way and make for a celeb-studded blockbuster finish.  

The end result, however, was a show with little or no momentum.  

In years past, you always knew that if you sat patiently through two 'boring' awards, you were to be rewarded for your commitment with a 'big' one–best supporting, best documentary–and maybe even a weepy speech or an upset. This year, the first three hours of the show grew so dull that, at one point, I found myself cleaning my bathroom. By 11:30, I was in bed dozing off. When I got into the office this morning, everyone had something to say about the first 30 minutes–but most people confessed they had tuned out before the end. Even Regis Philbin, who was out in LA for the festivities, confessed to Kelly  that he had been less than impressed with the new format.  

What did you think?

By Caroline Palmer