ABC network executives could hardly be blamed if they had secretly hoped for Oscar nominations for Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman or Julia Roberts this year.
But instead of that high-wattage trio of superstars, largely unknown actors such as Keisha Castle-Hughes, Samantha Morton, Djimon Hounsou, Patricia Clarkson, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Ken Watanabe will be among those competing for Oscar gold on Sunday’s Academy Awards telecast.
The dearth of Oscar-nominated superstars this year adds to the challenge facing ABC and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: reversing a ratings decline for the show during the all-important February ratings sweeps period. Last year’s Oscars were the least-watched in history.
“A lot of critics are delighted with the Oscar nominations . . . But, oftentimes, what makes critics happy may not bring people to the sofa,” observed Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University.
Apart from maybe Johnny Depp, Bill Murray, Diane Keaton and Renee Zellweger, none of the acting nominees has been in many big box-office hits. Even Sean Penn, Charlize Theron, Jude Law, Ben Kingsley, Alec Baldwin, Naomi Watts and Holly Hunter–all well-known and respected–have never been big box-office names or ratings grabbers.
With Revolution Films head Joe Roth at the helm for the first time, the network is counting on the return of popular Oscar host Billy Crystal and a plethora of big-name stars to get viewers to tune in. Last week, Roth announced that both Cruise and Roberts would be presenters on the telecast, and their appearances are sure to be promoted heavily.
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“[Roth’s] ability to bring the star power into this, beyond the movies nominated, is critical for us,” said Mike Benson, ABC’s senior vice president of marketing, advertising and promotion. So far, Roth also has lined up Kidman, Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Colin Farrell and Catherine Zeta-Jones as presenters.
The star power will be needed. With the Oscar show moved up a month during this compressed awards season, the telecast will face more than token counterprogramming from its competitors who don’t want to simply concede a night during February sweeps.
“We’ll have competition,” Benson said. “It’s important to make sure we are putting behind as much as we can to get a good number.”
For its part, ABC has been doing all it can in the weeks leading up to the program to get viewers in an awards frame of mind.
The network is having its first-ever Oscar week, which is featuring Oscar-theme episodes of nine regular series, including “The Practice” and the sitcoms “According to Jim,” “Hope & Faith” “8 Simple Rules…” and “It’s All Relative.”
The Academy for the first time hired a marketing director to promote the show.