With the Academy Awards being less than a month away, the looming question is asked: Are award shows worth watching in 2023?

From the red carpet to star-studded celeb guests, these award shows are fascinating for viewers across the globe. With the rise in award shows, some say there are too many.

What makes these shows so important and intriguing to watch?

Today, there are over 100+ award shows in music, sports, and film/tv, but which are the most important and are they still relevant? The most popular are the Oscars, The Grammy’s, Emmy’s, Golden Globes, People’s Choice, and Tony Awards. Despite these being major award shows, there has been a significant decrease in viewers in shows like the Grammy’s due to the nominations and lack of recognition that certain artists get. Despite the Grammy and Oscar nominations coming from the artists, producers, and editors, viewers and artists are losing interest.

With Will Smith’s slap heard round the world during last year’s Academy Awards, there is no doubt that there will be a significant audience for this coming Oscars. Surprisingly, the actions of last year’s Best Actor can only help the number of Oscars viewers but damage the image of the prestigious show. The precise issue for this year’s Academy Awards is trying to capture the viewer’s attention for the 2-hour program. At times, the Oscars can feel very much like a C-SPAN program and quickly loses excitement due to long speeches, unnecessary categories, and, one of the worst, an unamusing host that rambles for the entirety of the show.

With the recent SAG award show airing last Sunday on the 26th of February, there was an outstanding approval of its winners unlike the controversy seen from the results of other award shows. The SAG award winners are determined by the members of the SAG-AFTRA, similar to the system used for determining Academy awards at the Oscars. A majority of the members are actors themselves, meaning whoever wins is truly a respected actor/actress among their peers.

There is no doubt that the Academy Awards, and every award show, comes with excitement, drama, joy, sadness, and, ultimately, surprises. The different networks and shows aim to entice their audience to the best of their abilities.

As years have progressed, more and more movies released through streaming services have been nominated for awards. At first, these nominees were seen as a disgrace to audiences and the filmmakers themselves as it took away from the authenticity of cinema and theater-going experience. However, it is simply a fact that with streaming services now overpowering theaters across the globe, film/media companies begin to release movies digitally. Production companies, in other words, are forced to follow the wave of digital media in order to make profit on the film they are releasing. The days of cinema slowly fade as excitement for theaters has merely become a past time for some.

The Oscars was a show to truly honor the greatest film makers and actors in Hollywood, but as time goes on, the newer generations have lost that fascination. As a result, the Oscars have been forced to make changes and simply evolve to remain a relevant program. The award shows today must simply reconstruct or change the way they nominate and design their events as social media, and streaming services for music and film has truly altered the industry in 2023.

The world will simply have to wait and see what crazy twists and turns the film, tv, and music industries take when it comes to awarding their brilliant and remarkably gifted artists.