While the Oscars remain the pinnacle of recognition in Hollywood, viewing figures for the glistening annual ceremony have been steadily on the decline in recent years.
And actor Seth Rogen has spoken out on the declining viewership, saying he doesn’t understand why anyone outside of the industry really cares about the awards anyway.
In an interview with Insider, Rogen, who stars in the new Hulu series Pam & Tommy, said: “I don’t get why movie people care so much if other people care what awards we give ourselves.
“To me, maybe people just don’t care. I don’t care who wins the automobile awards. No other industry expects everyone to care about what awards they shower upon themselves.
“Maybe people just don’t care. Maybe they did for a while and they stopped caring. And why should they?”
While Rogan has never been nominated for an Oscar, he has attended several ceremonies and, in 2017, presented an award.
In 2021, viewer numbers for the Oscars dipped by 51 per cent to 9.23 million from 18.6 million the previous year. However, the pandemic meant the 2021 ceremony was pared back in comparison to previous years.
The 2022 ceremony will mark the return of a full audience and, for the first time in four years, a host, in a move the Academy hopes will regain viewers.
The 94th Academy Awards will take place at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre on Sunday, March 27.
Netflix’s The Power of the Dog leads this year’s nominees, with 12 nods. Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi film Dune, which was partly shot in Abu Dhabi, is a close second with 10 nods, followed by West Side Story and Belfast, which picked up seven nominations each.
