To Revamp Oscar Ratings, Get Rid of the Politics
THE ISSUE: The politicization of the Academy Awards, which hit all-time-low viewership this year.
Jimmy Kimmel has hosted the politically tainted Oscars for the last two years (“New H’wood just another bad remake,” Maureen Callahan, March 5).
Ratings were down 14 percent in 2017 and 16 percent this year. I hope he continues hosting, as eventually, the ratings might be so low that it isn’t even televised.
The academy could bring back the quality of the earlier broadcasts by sticking to show business.
Joe Mercer Memphis, Tenn.
Now that awards season is finally over, celebrities are done congratulating each other on how amazing they are while telling Americans whom we should vote for and how we should live our lives.
They’ll go back to giving us the drugs, sex, lies and greed we’ve come to expect from them.
William Dancosse
Vernon, Conn.
Kobe Bryant was arrested in 2003 and investigated when a 19-yearold hotel employee filed a sexual assault complaint against him. The accuser later filed a separate civil lawsuit against him, which the two settled.
Yet Bryant won an Os- car for his animated short, “Dear Basketball.” How does this happen in the #MeToo era?
It’s just another example of the hypocrisy of the Hollywood elite.
Bill Viggiano
Williston Park
Watching these elitist pageants was nauseating even before celebrities started using their platform to condescendingly lecture viewers.
The Oscars treated us to out-of-touch, self-absorbed blather and emotional hysteria.
Robert Moon
Frederick, Md.
The women with the power to speak about misogyny at the Oscars should have refused to appear at the same event as Dave Chappelle.
His latest Netflix special is built around his punchline: “So, I kicked her in the p- - -y,” which he repeated several times. Am I missing something?
Karen Fredericks
Manhattan
Kimmel tried his best to prop up the fading Oscar broadcast. Why were ratings so low?
Well, where else would you find a solidly leftwing, self-important bunch of actors given a national stage to bash America?
It is no wonder that Americans have turned their backs on the Oscars.
Maybe if the academy made it a truly entertaining show, extolling great acting and films, people would come back to enjoy decent television.
Robert Lobenstein
Brooklyn
It’s no surprise that Oscar ratings were at a record low. The show proved that the glamour of yesteryear is gone.
Ed Greenspan
Brooklyn