Academy Awards should follow American Idol

In watching the Academy Awards last night I realized that it really is an interesting award ceremony albeit archaic.  

When you think about the purpose of the award ceremony, it is to acknowledge people who have done something that crowds or the masses have found interesting and hence has become popular.  This, in it of itself, is entertainment which is why it is a 4 or 5 hour show.

The dichotomy here is that the masses have determined what should be considered for an award nomination by the box office numbers.   But then, the actual winners of the awards themselves is determined by the Academy (of entertainment) who are trying pick what they think the masses will approve of.  

Again - the Academy Awards is simply a highly touted, highly commercialized and profitable entertainment event.  For the record I think that this is a good thing and very appropriate.  

But many times in the past the Academy  has fallen under sever scrutiny because they failed to accurately predict what the people wanted and the result was that it affected the entertainment value of the ceremony, which affects revenue.  Now, you contrast this with American Idol where they actually do the reverse; a select group of people choose the competing candidates and the masses choose the winners.  By doing this, American Idol avoids the scandal rumors that often riddle the Academy Awards and the result is a winner as determined by the masses.  American Idol proves that this is the best model for entertainment by their advertising revenue numbers show after show season after season which blows away the Academy Awards numbers.

Not sure that the Academy will read this blog and I am certain that if they do they will not give a sh%t; but they should.  As the world continues to embrace technology the entertainment industry seems to lag where they should be leaping forward and taking lessons from successful models like American Idol.  

Hopefully we are not one day talking about government bailing out of the entertaining industry because they too have failed to adapt to the market as with the auto industry.

The Crowd is gathering......