Sunday, May 24, 2026

The Oscars Will Stay In March for the Next Two Years Despite Low Ratings and Nominated Films Already Out of Theaters

Share

A lot of people, including yours truly, would like the Oscars to move back to February.

This year, the show took place on March 15th. All the nominated movies were long gone from theaters. Interest in them had waned significantly.

The result was a big drop in the ratings.

It seems like this didn’t matter either to ABC or the Academy or both.

Next year, they say, the Oscars will be on March 14th. The following year, the last on ABC, will take place March 5th. The latter will be the 100th anniversary of the Oscars.

Then the show moves to YouTube. Perhaps the Academy will have more luck with an earlier date since there is no ratings sweep period streaming. February is a sweeps month for advertisers on TV.

In step with the Oscars, the SAG Actors Awards will take place on February 28, 2027 and February 20, 2028. SAG and Netflix are smart. This timing will actually make the Actors Awards important again. Now they will happen halfway through final Oscar voting. I’ll bet a lot of Academy voters will wait and see the SAG results before casting their Oscar ballots.

Of course, we will need good movies. For 2027, we have the possibilities of “Dune 3,” “Project Hail Mary,” “Disclosure Day,” “The Odyssey,” “Digger,” and more. If you go by the Oscar projection sites, we already know who won!

Donate to Showbiz411.com

Showbiz411 is now in its 13th year of providing breaking and exclusive entertainment news. This is an independent site, unlike the many Hollywood trades that are owned by one company. To continue providing news that takes a fresh look at what's going on in movies, music, theater, etc, advertising is our basis. Reader donations would be greatly appreciated, too. They are just another facet of keeping fact based journalism alive.
Thank you


Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

Read more

In Other News