LOS ANGELES — It’s almost time to give the Academy Awards a big hand.
OK, maybe we should rephrase that.
A year after Will Smith strode on stage at the Dolby Theatre and slapped Chris Rock in the face, the Oscars will reconvene Sunday for a ceremony that will try to move past one of the most infamous moments in Academy Awards history.
The telecast from the Dolby in Los Angeles begins at 8 p.m. EDT on ABC. The broadcast can be streamed with a subscription to Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&T TV and Fubo TV. You can also stream the show on ABC.com and on the ABC app by authenticating your provider.
Jimmy Kimmel, the show’s first solo emcee in five years, is hosting for the third time. The late-night comedian has promised to make some jokes about The Slap; it would be “ridiculous” not to, he said.
Bill Kramer, chief executive of the film academy, has said that it was important, given what happened last year, to have “a host in place who can really pivot and manage those moments.”
“Nobody got hit when I hosted the show,” Kimmel bragged tongue in cheek Thursday on “Good Morning America.” “Everybody was well-behaved at my Oscars.”
Kimmel will preside over a ceremony that could see big wins for t he best-picture favorite, “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s action-comedy indie hit comes in with a leading 11 nominations, including nods for Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan.
Producers are giving some aspects of the Oscars a makeover. The carpet is champagne-colored, not red. The broadcast has been planned to be more interactive than ever.
But the academy, still trying to find its footing after several years of pandemic and ratings struggles, is also hoping for a smoother ride than last year. A crisis management team has been created to help better respond to surprises. The academy has called its response to Smith’s actions last year “inadequate.” Neither Rock, who recently made his most forceful…
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