Seth Rogen has been speaking to Insider, saying he doesn’t understand why Hollywood wants everyone to care about the Oscars “I don’t get why movie people care so much if other people care what awards we give ourselves.” Every year of the last five years has seen much hand-wringing about how to coax more viewers to watch the Oscar ceremony, but the numbers continue to decline.
In the interview, Rogen compares the Oscars to other industry awards; “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?”
2021 saw a scaled-down Oscar ceremony produced by Steven Soderbergh. It had about half of the ratings of the previous year, with only 9.23 million viewers, a 51% drop from the 18.69 million who watched the Academy Awards in 2020. The Academy has gone back and forth on whether having a host for the ceremony is a good idea, but apparently there will be a host (or hosts) in 2022.
When Insider asked Rogen and Paul Rudd (who was part of the same interview) who they think should host, Rogen admitted “that’s a tough one,” but added, “I’m sure there are comedians out there that want to, right?” The two suggested someone “outside the box” like Nathan for You co-creator Nathan Fielder or HBO’s How To with John Wilson creator, John Wilson.
Seth Rogen is currently starring in Pam & Tommy, as the man who stole the Pamela Anderson-Tommy Lee sex tape from their home and widely distributed it, using the burgeoning phenomenon of the internet.
If you’re one of the (apparently dwindling number of) people who are interested in the kinds of movies that get nominated for Oscars, check out our guide to the best drama movies.