Starting in 2029, the Oscars will move to YouTube, which is a notable cultural shift.
In a different era, the Oscars were one of the premier events on broadcast television, a sort of entertainment equivalent of the Super Bowl.
Even as the shows became boring for most Americans because of insufferable political speeches, there were still enough people who cared about movies and celebrities to tune in each year.
As I wrote earlier this year for the magazine, however, seeing movies in the theater is in a state of long-term decline, so fewer people are even aware of any of the films being nominated for Oscars. Watching movies on small screens, the overexposure of celebrities on social media — all of this has meant that there are no real stars the way they once existed.
So, given that not many people are seeing movies, and they don’t care about any celebrities or what they are wearing, it’s no surprise that the ratings have been plummeting.
The shift to YouTube also is a demonstration of the further decline of broadcast television in the age of streaming, which is only hanging on right now because of live sports contracts.