Sunday’s Oscars marked the third-to-last time Hollywood’s biggest night will air live on ABC before it shifts to YouTube in 2029, closing out more than half a century of historic moments.
Moments like the streaker who ran by 1974 host David Niven, shows put on months after national tragedies like 9/11 or just a day after the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, or even 2017’s Envelopegate come to mind for Rob Mills, Walt Disney Television’s EVP of unscripted and alternative entertainment, highlighting the legacy ABC has cemented in broadcasting the Academy Awards.
“We had all these all-time Oscar moments, good and bad, and things that reflected the mood to the country … ABC’s contribution will be that we really were a huge, really rich part of the Oscars history,” Mills told TheWrap. “The most important thing for the next two years is just making sure that we prepare for a really great baton hand off to YouTube, because I think it’s really important that … the Oscars reflect all the hopes and dreams of people who love movies, and we have to make sure that the Oscars are always a celebration of that.”
The Oscars’ shift to Youtube, which was announced in December, served as a major shakeup in broadcast TV, but Mills admits he understands why YouTube wanted to get in on the game as the TV landscape continues to evolve.
“I think YouTube really wanted this — YouTube is TV the same way ABC and Hulu and Disney plus is, so I think that I certainly understand YouTube wanting to get into this space,” Mills said. “The Academy has been such [an] incredible partner … we’re just really excited for these last two years, and then just want to make sure that we leave the Oscars in as good as or better shape than when we started.”
But before that, Sunday’s Oscars provided an apt celebration for the year’s biggest movies and the massive number of legends that were lost in the last year. Mills breaks it all down below.
TheWrap: Viewers had big expectations for the In Memoriam segment given so many big deaths. How did you craft who would get the bigger spotlight in the segment?
Mills: Robert Redford passed away before, and then when Diane Keaton passed away, and those are two monumental legends — this is in the fall. Now, the advantage we had too with the show was the producers were in place before last year’s show … so you can start planning for that now. When you lose people like that … the In Memoriam really needs to be really, really done — these are legendary names for losing. And then obviously the tragedy with Rob and Michelle Reiner was just awful. When that happened, I think that’s when they started to really think about, “Okay, how is this going to take shape? What are we going to do?” Rob Reiner directed so many monumental films with so many massive Hollywood stars, and …. you knew the only person who could ever do this was Billy Crystal. They knew that it would start in that way. And then, sadly, as this was, was being talked about over the last few months, we started losing more — we lost Catherine O’Hara, which was so awful, and then Robert Duvall, who is also a monumental Oscar winning actor. It’s a big task that I think [Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan] met the moment beautifully.
Early on it was Billy doing Rob with all those legendary stars would open it, and then you would book end with Barbra Streisand and doing Robert Redford.
How did Streisand’s performance come together?
Very early on she knew she wanted to pay tribute to Redford, and also knowing this has to be fitting, because this is somebody who has been not only part of her life, but part of our lives for decades. She did something very similar, I think, 13 or 14 years ago, for Marvin Hamlisch, where she sang “The Way We Were,” which she wrote in its entirety. For Redford, she had to speak to not only their collaboration, but their friendship, but also his his activism. He wasn’t just an actor, he was a director, he was a producer, obviously, not only the Sundance festival, but the Sundance Institute. Then it was beautiful that she was able to also sing part of the song — you just couldn’t ask for anything better.
Viewers criticized the winner acceptance speeches that got played off, including the songwriters of “Golden” from “KPop Demons Hunters.” What’s the worst part of taking the heat for the show’s timing restrictions on broadcast TV?
One of the things we talk about it every year is, “How do you wrestle this show into three and a half hours?” Sometimes you try things that maybe don’t work as well — pre-taping some of the technical awards and playing in the show. I don’t even think it cut any time, but I think that wasn’t as well received. The year David Hill did it, he did the lower third, where people could thank people in that way.
We probably should look, going forward, how do we handle the speeches? Certainly, the winners know — we talk about it at the nominees luncheon, and they know — there’s a big sort of countdown clock when they get on there. It’s hard. I mean, it’s been that way forever. I think that when Julia Roberts won, she preemptively told the conductor, “Put your baton down here.” It’s hard because they have these beautiful speeches to say, but you’re looking at live TV, so we’ll look at it and see if there’s other things we can do. Should there be one designated speaker that speaks live on the show, and then we move into something that’s either on our live socials or something where everyone else can speak? I don’t know what the answer is, but we will definitely try and do it, because … the only sentiment you want coming away from the show, obviously, is always good, heartfelt laughter and tears, not people upset.
Were you surprised there weren’t more political speeches given the temperature?
The speeches, for the most part, were really about the winners, and some of these were winners that waited so long to win, or were historic. All the speeches certainly … stuck to just their love for the art of film, and the films they were a part of. I thought all the speeches were really beautiful.
Disney shared a lot of synergy during the telecast, from that Grogu cameo to the Marvel reunion with Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans. Why step those efforts up this year?
As you’re looking at what are the big tenfold events in cinema this year, those are some of the biggest ones. Don’t forget, Robert Downey Jr. won an Oscar two years ago. I think people are really excited about that — and I’m speaking as somebody who loves movies and going to movies, not as a Disney employe, because I know, it sounds self-serving … [but] who’s not excited about Robert Downey Jr. returning to “The Avengers,” but I legitimately am. Grogu is adorable. I actually think he and Kate Hudson need to do something. I don’t know anybody who’s not excited about anything having to do with “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” and that Anna Wintour-Anne Hathaway moment was incredible. I don’t think we were trying to hype up anything that needed any more hype or any help.
Even in Conan’s monologue, he joked that there’s a shift coming with technology and AI. Is that something you anticipate the Academy is more open to moving forward, especially as they turn to partner with YouTube?
I think they realize the Oscars can’t live in a vacuum. And if you look at the Oscars last night versus the Oscars from 20, 30 years ago, of course, it looks different, but it’s important for them to stay true to the spirit of the show. I think everything Conan said were was really more in jest than anything else, and I think you could use that for any number of award shows, TV shows, movies. It’s something we’re all dealing with. It’s kind of a brave new world.
There was a moment where Conan was caught on camera and thought they weren’t on the air yet. What happened there?
That has happened before in tons of live award shows or live TV. I think he just didn’t realize. Obviously the show was running long — a couple seconds — But it was really great because you saw how Conan was with the audience … that’s really who he is — I have limited experience — It’s really just to these last two Oscars working with him but he’s a really, really great guy. It was kind of nice that people got to see that — it’s not like he’s there screaming, and then immediately, “Okay, back,” and then he starts smiling. The guy you saw hosting the show is exactly the guy off camera.
You boosted the new season of “The Bachelorette” with a “Before the First Rose” special in a coveted post-Oscars spot that has previously gone to shows like “Abbott Elementary.” What went into that decision and how do you hope the special brings people in to the new season?
That decision gets made as we’re planning our schedule, which is now in the next couple months, we’ll start talking about it. We saw an opportunity [with] “The Bachelorette.” Sometimes it’s just where things are going to be scheduled — “American Idol” moved to once a week on Mondays, because there was so much programming on Sundays, between the Winter Olympics and then the Super Bowl, and then we had to move the Oscars later. When that fell into place and “The Bachelorette” was going to premiere right after the Oscars, it seemed to make sense. There seems to be so much excitement around Taylor [Frankie Paul] [being] “The Bachelorette.” Once we knew this was a possibility, that’s when it sort of took shape of — Taylor is the first “Bachelorette” who is not from a previous season [of] “The Bachelor” [and] really didn’t know a lot about it. So what if we did a thing where all the bachelorettes come back and really sort of help her before her first night.
It’s a major reality TV universe crossover for Disney. How are you feeling about this bold bet?
It’s really exciting. It’s also really daunting, because you have two production companies working together, and they’ve done a great job. If you watch Season 4 of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” the handoff is, Taylor has to go be “The Bachelorette.” And then next Sunday, her “Bachelorette” journey will start. And then Season 5 will pick up where that went off, so if we can thread that needle correctly, it’s going to be great for one of those things where one plus one will equal three for both franchises. But it is definitely a 24-hour-a-day job.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
