An anonymous voter for the upcoming Academy Awards told The Hollywood Reporter this week that he has no plans to watch the Oscars on television this year.
The voter said that he didn’t plan to watch the ceremony because there will be no host and because he anticipates the event will be “boring.”
THR reports:
A male member of the Academy’s 519-person directors branch, granted a cloak of anonymity, reveals why he filled out his final Oscar ballot the way that he did. “I’m not going to watch the Oscars this year,” he volunteers, saying the idea of a hostless ceremony has turned him off. “I’m just anticipating a very boring show. One of the best things about the show is the opening monologue, which is usually pretty good — it’s what happens after that that’s not great.”
As for the Academy’s plan to hand out four awards during commercial breaks (which it rescinded after outcry): “It’s an abomination,” he says. “If ABC, which I’m sure was pushing for this, thought that dumping cinematography and film editing was going to bring back any of the viewers the show has lost in recent years, they’re idiotic.
Indeed, the Oscars have been mired in controversy this year. The initially announced host, comedian Kevin Hart, stepped down from hosting the show after a social justice mob came after him for years-old gay jokes.
The Oscars have previously been a hotbed of anti-Donald Trump and left-wing rhetoric. Last year, host Jimmy Kimmel repeatedly attacked President Trump on stage. The previous year, the ceremony made room for 15 different anti-Trump jokes.