Date: 02-26-2008
The 80th Annual Academy Awards, televised live on ABC amidst the hype and hoopla of intense media attention, was a show overstocked with clips of Oscar winners from yesteryear. The much awaited event was nothing to write home about, according to critics. The show, which had been in danger of being written off due to the writers’ strike, seemed to rely excessively, perhaps because of the strike, on clips and montages from earlier ceremonies. ABC apparently feared that viewer turnout would not be very good, and many journalists agreed that there was a cloud hanging over the event as the ceremony had nothing much to offer. Even the highlights of acceptance speeches from past winners seemed to render the present year’s awardees self-conscious and subdued. What’s more, of the best-picture nominees, only Juno could boast of much box-office success. The other nominees were mainly dark, bloody, and not widely seen, thus increasing the chances that viewers would have little interest.
