I did it. I stayed up to watch the 78th Academy Awards. As you may know, I love the Oscars, and I haven’t missed a ceremony in over 20 years.
I was watching in 2011 when Anne Hathaway and James Franco muddled their way through hosting the show (it was painful to watch). I was left open-mouthed in 2017 when Warren Beatty announced La La Land as Best Picture before hastily being corrected, and I’ve watched in recent years as the show feels like it’s tried to play it as safe as possible so as not to upset a divided domestic audience.
But I don’t think I’ve ever watched an Oscars where it wasn’t a slickly produced broadcast, with every department delivering impeccable sound and video.
Alas, that wasn’t the case last night. The 78th Academy Awards was one of the worst-sounding live broadcasts I’ve ever watched.
It started badly, with the first five minutes including what sounded like strange beeps/distortion and it got worse from there. The sound was muddy. If a group of presenters were on stage, you often couldn’t hear them properly (this was particularly bad during the Bridesmaids reunion, which relied on viewers being able to hear Melissa McCarthy’s jokes), Oscar announcer Matt Berry was often drowned out by the orchestral music behind him, and it was even difficult to hear the legendary Barbra Streisand as she delivered a tribute to Robert Redford.
Strangely, there was no mention of the problems from host Conan O’Brien or Jonathan Ross on ITV’s broadcast, so I wondered if I was the only one not hearing things properly. After checking social media, I learned I was not. As one social media user wrote: “It’s like none of the close mics work and they’re using a room mic in the back for everything.”
I’ve often written about how important sound is to the viewing experience, both in film and TV. At an awards show that includes a sound category, you would think they could get the audio right for the watching audience. While I can understand that those in the auditorium probably weren’t aware of how bad it sounded, surely the production team could have acknowledged the problem.
With the Oscars audience on the decline, and ahead of the move to YouTube in the next couple of years, the show needs to be at its slickest best. And if, according to Conan O’Brien, one billion viewers can’t hear the show properly, they’re not going to keep watching.
Let’s hope the 78th Academy Awards were just a blip. I will be watching again in 2027 to make sure.
