We are committed to producing an entertaining show in three hours, delivering a more accessible Oscars for our viewers worldwide.

To honor all 24 award categories, we will present select categories live, in the Dolby Theatre, during commercial breaks (categories to be determined). The winning moments will then be edited and aired later in the broadcast.</s>The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday a few changes to future Oscars telecasts: The televised ceremony will be limited to three hours; the 2020 ceremony will be bumped up two weeks to Feb. 9; and, to the disdain of many, a new category will recognize achievement in popular film.

“We have heard from many of you about improvements needed to keep the Oscars and our Academy relevant in a changing world,” president John Bailey and CEO Dawn Hudson wrote in an email sent to Academy members. “The Board of Governors took this charge seriously.”

The changes were determined in a meeting held Tuesday night, where the board also reelected Bailey.

The Academy Awards have suffered from low ratings in recent years. This year’s nearly four-hour telecast, hosted again by Jimmy Kimmel, dropped 19 percent from the previous year to just 26.5 million viewers, according to the Hollywood Reporter — an all-time low. Bailey and Hudson added that shortened telecasts aim to deliver “a more accessible Oscars for our viewers worldwide.” Certain categories — which have yet to be announced but will presumably include those honoring technical achievement — will be presented during commercial breaks.

Eligibility requirements for the new category have not been publicized, either, but several critics have accused the academy of pandering and lessening the stature of the best picture category.

“Look we already tried the Blockbuster Awards and they didn’t work,” tweeted Richard Lawson, chief film critic at Vanity Fair.

Atlantic staff writer David Sims called the changes “an embarrassing disaster,” adding that the new category sounds “both incredibly vague and incredibly lame, but refusing to broadcast technical awards is much, much worse and more depressing.”</s>The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that organises the Oscars every year has announced major changes in the ceremony’s format: the introduction of an Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film category, a shorter, three-hour telecast, and an earlier airdate by a couple of weeks from 2020.

The move followed the re-election of John Bailey as the academy’s president on Tuesday. Among the reasons behind the decision: dipping ratings and the “hope of retaining the viewers it still has and luring others back into the fold ahead of the 91st Academy Awards on Feb. 24, 2019”, The Hollywood Reporter said.

The new category is being seen as an attempt to ensure that tentpole productions and box office hits get something to go home with alongside more serious-minded and offbeat fare. “More than the length of the telecast or the name of the host, Oscar ratings have been shown to correlate with the popularity of the nominated films among the general public,” veteran Oscar watcher Scott Feinberg said in The Hollywood Reporter. “And the gulf between what the public buys tickets to see and what the Academy nominates and awards has never been greater.” This new category will ensure a place at the ceremony for such crowdpleasers as Black Panther, Mission: Impossible — Fallout and Avengers: Infinity War, it is speculated.

Not all of the 24 competitive awards will be telecast anymore. “To honor all 24 award categories, we will present select categories live, in the Dolby Theatre, during commercial breaks (categories to be determined),” said a letter sent to the members of the Academy board that was quoted by Hollywood trade publications. “The winning moments will then be edited and aired later in the broadcast.”

Indiewire’s awards editor Anne Thompson slammed the move to cut down the number of broadcasted categories. “No more Sound Mixing and Editing, boys and girls,” she wrote. “This also serves to undermine the integrity of these annual global awards, which may be losing relevance as a mainstream shared event, but are still revered by cinephiles around the world.”

While the ceremony for 2019 will be held on the previously announced date of February 24, the date for the 2020 event will be moved up, to February 9. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts, whose ceremony precedes the Oscars by a couple of weeks, said that it was considering changing its date too. “Our intention will be to stay ahead of the Oscars, as we have been since 2001,” a BAFTA spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter.

The Academy’s announcement elicited mixed reactions on Twitter, especially to the creation of the popular film category.</s>LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Oscars are adding a new category to honor popular films and promising a brisk three-hour ceremony and a much earlier air date in 2020.

John Bailey, the newly re-elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, says in an email to members Wednesday morning that the Board of Governors met Tuesday night to approve the three major changes. Eligibility requirements for "outstanding achievement in popular film" category will be forthcoming.

Ratings for the 90th Academy Awards fell to an all-time low of 26.5 million viewers, down 19 percent from the previous year and the first time the glitzy awards ceremony had fewer than 30 million viewers since 2008. It also clocked it at nearly 4 hours, making it the longest show in over a decade.

The 2019 ceremony will air Feb. 24, while the 2020 ceremony will move to Feb. 9.

According to the letter, the Oscars will present some categories during commercial breaks then edit those moments for air later on in the broadcast.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>LOS ANGELES (AP/WCCO) — The Oscars are adding a new category to honor popular films and promising a brisk three-hour ceremony on a much earlier air date of Feb. 9, 2020.

Change is coming to the #Oscars. Here's what you need to know: – A new category is being designed around achievement in popular film.

– We've set an earlier airdate for 2020: mark your calendars for February 9.

– We're planning a more globally accessible, three-hour telecast. pic.twitter.com/oKTwjV1Qv9

John Bailey, the newly re-elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, says in an email to members Wednesday morning that the Board of Governors met Tuesday night to approve the three major changes. Eligibility requirements for the popular film category will be forthcoming.

This is not the first time the AMPAS has altered their rules in an attempt to get more commercially popular films to the table at the Academy Awards. Nine years ago, the Academy expanded the best picture roster from five nominees to 10.

That move came after outcry accompanied the Academy’s perceived failure to nominate “The Dark Knight” and “WALL-E” for the top award, instead favoring “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk” and “The Reader.”

Ratings for the 91st Academy Awards fell to an all-time low of 26.5 million viewers, down 19 percent from the previous year and the first time the glitzy awards ceremony had fewer than 30 million viewers since 2008. It also clocked it at nearly 4 hours, making it the longest show in over a decade.</s>LOS ANGELES — The Oscars are adding a new category to honor popular films and promising a brisk three-hour ceremony and a much earlier air date in 2020.

John Bailey, the newly re-elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and film Academy CEO Dawn Hudson said in an email to members Wednesday morning that the Board of Governors met Tuesday night to approve the changes.

Ratings for the 90th Academy Awards fell to an all-time low of 26.5 million viewers, down 19 percent from the previous year and the first time the glitzy awards ceremony had fewer than 30 million viewers since 2008. Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the ceremony also clocked in at nearly four hours, making it the longest show in over a decade.

"We have heard from many of you about improvements needed to keep the Oscars and our Academy relevant in a changing world," Hudson and Bailey wrote.

In an effort to keep future ceremonies to three hours, the awards will be presented live and during commercial breaks. Specific categories will be determined at a later date, but the winning moments will be edited and aired in a later broadcast.

The film academy is also shifting the date for the 92nd Academy Awards to earlier in the year. The 2019 ceremony will still air on Feb. 24, while the 2020 show will move to Feb. 9.

The addition of a popular film category caused the most chatter Wednesday morning, as a clear effort to attract a larger audience by honoring bigger and more seen films. Bailey and Hudson said eligibility requirements will be determined at a later date. It wasn't specified whether it would be added for the 91st Academy Awards this February.

Oscar viewership is often tied to the box-office muscle of the big nominees. The 2018 best picture winner, "The Shape of Water," had grossed $57.4 million in the United States by the time the awards aired and $63.9 million total. The biggest Academy Awards audience on record came in 1998, when the blockbuster "Titanic" was named best picture.</s>The Oscars will introduce a new category next year and it has fans of the film industry divided. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences will now honor the most "popular film" of the year.

What does that mean exactly? According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Oscars "will create a new category for outstanding achievement in popular film" and the "eligibility requirements and other key details will be forthcoming."

The popular film category will be implemented during the 91st annual Academy Awards which will take place Feb. 24, 2019. The Academy's board of governors did in fact endorse the new change for the upcoming three-hour telecast.

The Academy has also set an earlier date for 2020 and will make the show more globally accessible. The breaking news brought a lot of backlash which had people comparing the Oscars to the MTV Awards, People's Choice, and more.</s>The US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced plans to introduce a new 'popular film' category for the Oscars.

The Academy made the announcement this afternoon, although provided few details of what the new category would entail.

In an email to members quoted by The Hollywood Reporter, the organisation stated: "We will create a new category for outstanding achievement in popular film.

"Eligibility requirements and other key details will be forthcoming."

Although details remain vague, the new category could indicate an attempt to include more blockbuster and genre films in the ceremony.

Although the expanded 'best picture' category has seen a wider range of films nominated for the top award over the last decade, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was the last big name blockbuster to secure the statue back in 2003.

Meanwhile, the Academy also announced plans to ensure that the length of the ceremony is kept to three hours - with some categories set to be awarded during ad breaks, and then broadcast in edited form later in the show.

It comes in the wake of this year's ceremony, which attracted the lowest US TV ratings in the award show's history - amounting to an almost 20% drop compared to the previous year.</s>The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced plans on Wednesday to create a new category at the Oscars — for “outstanding achievement in popular film.”

John Bailey, the Academy president, and Dawn Hudson, the CEO, wrote a letter to Academy members unveiling changes to the ceremony that were decided on by the Board of Governors, according to .

The new popular film category may be an effort to boost ratings, which hit an all-time low of 26.5 million viewers in March. The letter said that “eligibility requirements and other key details will be forthcoming” for the category.

The letter also announced two other changes to the Oscars’ format: To keep the broadcast to three hours, some not-yet-announced categories will be presented during commercials. The letter explained, “The winning moments will then be edited and aired later in the broadcast.”

Finally, the Academy will hold the 2020 Oscars earlier than planned — on February 9 rather than February 23. The 2019 Oscars will take place on February 24.

Bailey and Hudson described these decisions as “improvements needed to keep the Oscars and our Academy relevant in a changing world.”

RELATED: The Oscars Moments We’ll Never Be Able to Stop Talking About

In June, the Academy invited a wave of 928 new members, including Timoth e Chalamet, Tiffany Haddish, Amy Schumer, Gina Rodriguez, Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, Daniel Kaluuya, Blake Lively, Rashida Jones, and Jada Pinkett Smith.</s>Remember when Chris Rock Oscars hosted the Oscars in 2016 and he quizzed people on the street as to whether or not they'd seen the Academy Award-nominated movies from that year?And it turned out that many people hadn't even heard of the movies in question, let alone seen them. Well, that may soon change.Perhaps as a reaction to last year's ratings for the 90th annual Academy Awards, which were the lowest ever, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tweeted Wednesday that a new category is "being designed around achievement in popular film." A representative for the Academy confirmed to "Good Morning America" that the new category will be implemented in time for next year's ceremony, which is scheduled for Feb. 24.What's more, the ceremony's 2020 show will air even earlier in the year on Feb. 9.The most welcome piece of news, though, is that the Academy says it will take steps to battle the show's tendency to run long -- way too long, in many cases -- and create a "more globally accessible, three-hour telecast."
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces new changes to the Oscars, including possibly a shorter ceremony, and a new category called "Most Popular Film".