Ellen DeGeneres is doing a decent enough job as host. To some extent, she's making the same mistake Letterman made when he hosted, which was to think this was an episode of his regular talk show but with some award presentations inserted. But Ellen is so self-effacing and pleasant that it doesn't get in the way of the proceedings. I suspect the telecast will be faulted for its sheer length…but it always is.
I was surprised her monologue wasn't sharper. It seemed to get things off to a sluggish start. So did the overlong montage of nominees making cute remarks.
Another slow starter was the lack of what they call "major awards" during the first hour or so. Usually, they give out one of the Best Supporting trophies right off the top in order to ramp up the energy. Bet they go back to that next year.
What I'd do: If I were in charge of the broadcast, I'd dump all the backstage antics, all the stuff in the wings. Who cares? Hyping what's coming up next is another way of saying, "Hey, we know it's dull but if you'll stick around, it may get exciting." I'd also drop the little trivia facts as the winners walk to the stage. It's not that long a period to expect people to pay attention.
Is it a requirement that when you win an Oscar, you have to either hold the statuette up like a Price is Right model or raise it over your head like it's a "power to the people" salute?
When someone wrote the theme song for the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon series for Saturday morning, do you think that person or persons ever dreamed it would someday be used to play on a presenter — in this case, Leonardo DiCaprio — at the Academy Awards?
I've been fast-forwarding so I may have missed one but I don't think we've had a joke about Britney Spears or Anna Nicole or the Lady Astronaut in Diapers or even a line about Joan Rivers out on the red carpet. If so, good for Ellen, good for the writers.
Wouldn't Steve Carrell be a good Oscar host?
The silhouette dancers are interesting but when the show feels long — and this one sure does — audiences get very unappreciative of "extras" like that.
Lastly for now: If anyone voted for An Inconvenient Truth because (as per the Evanier Theory), they thought Al Gore would give an acceptance speech of historic proportions, I think they got shortchanged. It was pleasant enough. People who already didn't like Gore are probably already bitching about it on some message board but they'd complain about anything he said. I like him and I'm complaining because he could have looked the world in the eye and said something they'd all be talking about the next day. And that's why he made the movie: So people would talk about Global Warming. It wasn't a bad moment but it was an easily-forgotten one. By the time we get to Best Director, no one on the planet will even remember what Gore said.