With the 65th Annual Golden Globes cancelled there are fears
that the Oscars might have the same fate.
Oscar organizers said on Tuesday that they are behind
schedule with the preparations for this year’s 80th edition due to
take place on February 24.
According to EW.com, Academy Awards executive producer Gil
Cates said that the show is still on.
He said: “The show is going on. I'm looking forward to it.
We're on schedule and, Hallelujah, I can't wait until the 24th.”
Still, with no ending in site for the writers’ strike, the
telecast of the Oscars is making advertisers anxious.
Bob Bernstein, chief media officer of Draftcb ad agency
said: “This is the biggest and most consistent TV property of the year behind
the Super Bowl.”
ABC sold in 2007 a spot of 30 seconds with the Oscars for
$1.6 million. For this year the network expects to sell it even at a higher
rate.
Regarding a possible set back for the Oscars, Bruce Davis,
executive director of the Academy
of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences, said: “I'm not going to cite odds, but our hope is we can work
something out or that the strike is resolved in time. The major change from
last year is that in a normal year, we'd have assembled a staff of writers, and
they would have been working on the show for more than a month," Reuters
quotes.
Writing for this year edition should start after the
nominations are announced on January 22.
Normally a group of writers are assembled by the Academy
like Carol Leifer and Bruce Vilanch. The host has to bring another set of
writers. Last year the show had 14 writers.
The Academy didn’t hire any writer so far.
This year’s host will be Jon Stewart, who so far hasn’t
brought any writer from his side.
He returned this week with his late night show “The Daily
Show With Jon Stewart” on Comedy Central after he initially said that he won’t
cross a picket line.
The Oscars were postponed only three times in the Academy
history: first was in 1938 due to floods, than in 1968 when Martin Luther King Jr.
was assassinated, and in 1981 before the assassination attempt of President
Reagan.
The Academy will approach the WGA for a waiver in order to
use the union writers.
It seems unlikely for ABC and the Academy to cancel the
broadcast of the Oscars, but it would definitely look different without anyone
writing the words for the show.
That will be fun to watch!
