The last few years have broken records for low ratings. Can the Academy save the annual film awards spectacle?
![The big question at this year’s Oscars – will anyone watch the ceremony?](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/7412e8508e1a8fe8bba869a073b1a8ddca6d0491/0_267_4166_2503/master/4166.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=c5b4ebd2d4839d236bee2d09f986fb96)
When The Power of the Dog took 12 Oscar nominations on Tuesday, the key question for this year’s awards became not what would win – a clean sweep for Jane Campion’s western is now looking inevitable – but whether anyone would watch it happen.
Last year’s ceremony was a muted, socially distanced affair held at Los Angeles’s Union Station. Ratings for the US TV network ABC fell by more than half from the previous year, which itself was a record-breaking low.