The NFL to force Oscars to move to Monday night?

I don’t particularly love that the Oscar ceremony takes place on a Sunday night (who wants to stay up that late and still have to go to work the next day?), but the idea of moving the Oscars to Monday is something I hate even more. Sadly a move to Monday could very well be happening in about three years time.

Why would the Oscars want to move out of Sunday, its home for the past 10 years? As it turns out they might not have much of a choice. The NFL is currently negotiating a deal that would bring an extra two games to the current 16-game schedule. That would obviously shift the league’s schedule forward two weeks and pit its biggest game and ratings powerhouse, The Super Bowl, up against the Oscars. That’s some the Academy, who already struggles to improve their ratings, obviously wants to avoid.

The options would be to push the telecast back to a date other than Sunday (Monday is the favorite because that’s when the show used to air, prior to 1999) or to a Sunday in March. The Oscars have been trying to run earlier rather than later to avoid award fatigue after the Golden Globes, SAG Awards and all the other competitors that air prior to the Academy Awards.

It would be at least 2013 until this was worked out but the NFL is currently meeting now to approve the new schedule. Should that happen soon, expect the AMPAS to follow suit and figure out a new plan. Whatever it is, it’ll involve me staying up way too late on a work night.