If it takes Will Smith’s slap to make people watch the Oscars, is it doomed? | Stuart Heritage

Viewing figures for the Academy Awards have been in decline for years and 2022's ceremony looked like yet another snoozefest ... until Smith slapped Chris Rock

Without question, Sunday night's Oscars were the ugliest in history. By physically assaulting a performer onstage, Will Smith managed to cause irreparable damage to the ceremony. And the outright failure of the show's producers and guests to chastise Smith, or even fully acknowledge his attack, has thrown the entire Academy into disrepute. However, if you squint hard enough and look at it from just the right angle, it might have been just the thing that the Oscars needed.

First, some perspective. This year's Oscars needed to be a hit. Last year's Covid ceremony was watched, by some degree, by far fewer people than any other Oscars in history. This was in part due to circumstance - no big films had been released due to Covid, and the big stars were understandably reluctant to all go and breathe on each other in an enclosed space - but also due to the event itself. Held in a train station, it was brisk and brief and shorn of all clips and jokes. It was not in any way fun to watch, so nobody watched it.