Oscars 2023: 10 Ups & 5 Downs

4. The Brutal Show Pacing & Runtime

Name a more iconic duo than the Oscars and brutal pacing. This year's broadcast clocked in at 3 hours and 40 minutes - the exact same length as last year's show - and provided yet further proof that the ceremony is in desperate need of a streamline.

Though the Academy were right to air all 23 awards once again after relegating eight "lesser" awards to the pre-show last year, this year's broadcast was still a sluggish slog over-filled with corny comedy skits (a hoarse-throated Elizabeth Banks and Cocaine Bear, anyone?), excessive video montages, and of course, an obscene number of commercials.

Jimmy Kimmel's opening segment ran almost 20 minutes in total, while infuriatingly cracking jokes about how overlong the Oscars tends to be.

Considering the Academy was again dinged for aggressively cutting off award winners after around 45 seconds of speaking, it's hard not to view the move as disrespectful when there's so much pointless dead weight throughout the show.

It'll certainly be interesting to see how the show's ratings pan out after last year's decent rebound, but it'd benefit enormously from being trimmed to three hours at the absolute most.