Oscar organizers ponder earlier show date

[June 24, 2010]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Academy Awards organizers are talking about moving up the date of the show, possibly as early as January.

At a Tuesday meeting, the academy's board of governors discussed the idea of holding the Oscars earlier. Most recent shows have been held in late February.

A statement Wednesday by the academy said the earliest any date change could take effect would be for the Oscars in 2012. A firm date of Feb. 27 already has been set for next year's 83rd Oscars.

The academy statement said the idea is "being explored as a possibility."

"There are a number of questions still to be answered and challenges to be addressed with regard to moving the show to an earlier date," the statement said. "The academy governors and staff have been and will continue to look into those questions and challenges. No decision has been made and there is currently no timetable for when a decision might be made."

Leslie Unger, spokeswoman for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, would not comment on why a date change was being considered.

For many years, the Oscars were held in late March but were moved to February in 2004 to shorten what many in Hollywood considered a prolonged awards season.

At the time, Oscar planners said waiting until late March to hand out awards might have been hurting the show's TV ratings, with audiences losing interest by then. Slotting the show in late February brought Hollywood's biggest awards show closer to earlier honors, such as the Golden Globes and ceremonies held by actors and directors guilds.

Critics say audiences now are inundated with one awards show after another and that the flurry of ceremonies would be more furious if the Oscars were moved earlier.

"Isn't moviemaking all about creating suspense and waiting, waiting, waiting for your payoff?" said Tom O'Neil, a columnist for awards website TheEnvelope.com. "We're seeing a herd mentality taking effect now."

Oscar voters are influenced by earlier awards and might be more inclined to play follow the leader, choosing the same winners if the show were held closer to other ceremonies, O'Neil said.

This past season, the sci-fi blockbuster "Avatar" had the momentum in mid-January, when it beat the Iraq War drama "The Hurt Locker" at the Golden Globes. At the Oscars seven weeks later, momentum had shifted to "The Hurt Locker," which beat "Avatar" for the top prizes.

Such breathing room between major awards shows gives Oscar voters a chance to weigh contenders more clearly and extra time to see them all, particularly important now that the academy has doubled the best-picture field to 10 films, O'Neil said.

Though the Oscar TV audience hit an all-time high in 1998, when blockbuster "Titanic" dominated the awards, the show's ratings have been on a general decline the last 25 years.

The audience fell to a record low of 32 million viewers two years ago but rebounded to 36.3 million in 2009 and 41.7 million this year as producers tinkered with the ceremony to liven it up.

[Associated Press; By DAVID GERMAIN]

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