--- title: Why the Oscars needed drama this year - The Hustle description: To put it bluntly, fewer and fewer people have a reason to watch the Hollywood ordeal. image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1025923404-News-Brief_2022-03-28T223013.459Z.webp --- # Why the Oscars needed drama this year ![Jacob Cohen](https://thehustle.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/IMG_5670-1-modified-768x768.png?width=48&height=48&name=IMG_5670-1-modified-768x768.png) [Jacob Cohen](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/jacob-cohen) [Jacob Cohen Twitter profile ](https://twitter.com/ImJacobCohen) Published: March 29, 2022 Updated: October 11, 2023 The slap heard around the world ([recapped here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo6s3IrVOZw)) was also likely the only reason many people even realized the Oscars were happening Sunday night. ![Why the Oscars needed drama this year](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1025923404-News-Brief_2022-03-28T223013.459Z.webp?width=595&height=400&name=1025923404-News-Brief_2022-03-28T223013.459Z.webp) Heading into the evening, viewership was lower than ever – down [**80%+**](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-03-27/streaming-services-rule-at-the-oscars-now-there-s-no-going-back?sref=3Ac2yX40) from its all-time peak in 1998. Pun absolutely intended, the show needed a slap in the face. #### **Why are the Oscars so boring anyway?** In large part, the boredom associated with today’s Oscars is the result of its focus on dramas when the genre accounts for just 5% of ticket sales, per *Bloomberg*. Not to discredit Apple’s Best Picture win for *Coda*, a 1st in the streaming space, or great films like *The Power of the Dog*, — but throw Gal Gadot, Ryan Reynolds, and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in *Red Notice* and that’s where the eyeballs go. It’s also why Amazon is spending [**$465m**](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/amazons-lord-of-the-rings-cost-465-million-one-season-4167791/) for just one season of a *Lord of the Rings* show, and not on a Marvelous Mrs. Maisel cinematic universe. #### **The bottom line?** To put it bluntly, fewer and fewer people have reasons to watch a Hollywood ordeal about movies they’ve never seen, that goes 40 minutes [over](https://www.axios.com/pro/media-deals/2022/03/28/oscars-ratings-award-shows) its 3-hour runtime (on a school night), when you can just check Twitter after to see what you missed. **As for us**, we were intrigued by the nominee gift bags filled with [**$137k+**](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/27/whats-inside-the-nearly-140000-dollar-gift-bag-given-to-top-oscar-nominees.html) in redeemable vouchers for things like liposuction and Scottish land. That, and this series of TikToks making fun of the Oscars ([here](https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdavVHpu/), [here](https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdavtBAa/), and [here](https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdavaCf8/)). 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Signup for a free account Close modal ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Jacob Cohen", "url" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/author/jacob-cohen" }, "datePublished" : "2022-03-29T05:33:23.000Z", "headline" : "Why the Oscars needed drama this year", "image" : [ "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1025923404-News-Brief_2022-03-28T223013.459Z.webp" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/03292022-oscars", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject" } } } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "#article", "@type" : "NewsArticle", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Jacob Cohen", "url" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/jacob-cohen" }, "dateModified" : "2023-10-11T20:11:14+0000", "datePublished" : "2022-03-29T05:33:23+0000", "headline" : "Why the Oscars needed drama this year", "image" : [ "https://7355427.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/7355427/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1025923404-News-Brief_2022-03-28T223013.459Z.webp" ], "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 112, "url" : "https://fs.hubspotusercontent00.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/Blog%202021/Images/Logos/HubSpot%20Logo%20112X112.svg", "width" : 112 }, "name" : "HubSpot", "sameAs" : [ "https://www.facebook.com/hubspot", "https://twitter.com/hubspot" ], "url" : "https://www.hubspot.com" }, "speakable" : { "@type" : "SpeakableSpecification", "xPath" : [ "//title", "/html/head/meta[@name='description']/@content" ] } } ```