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Oscar Ceremonies Ranked: The Best and Worst Academy Awards Shows from 1995 to 2020
Every year, after what feels like a lifetime of awards season campaigning, the industry awaits with bated breath to see which movies and artists will make their way to the biggest stage in Hollywood: The Oscars. Of course, the ceremonies are spectacles in and of themselves, subject as much as the films they honor jeers and adulation from critics, so we’re taking the last 25 years’ worth of Oscar shows and ranking them by Tomatometer!
Looking at the Tomatometer scores from the past decades of Oscar ceremonies proves there is no magic formula for Freshness. Master of ceremonies Billy Crystal runs the gamut on the Rotten-to-Fresh spectrum. Neil Patrick Harris, who’s hosted awards from coast to coast, can crash and burn. A snafu like the Moonlight/La La Land debacle can actually be a boon to the show’s watchability (and likability according to critics), while a cringeworthy misfire like Anne Hathaway and James Franco’s entire schtick can, predictably, earn terrible reviews.
Whoopi Goldberg may just be the most consistent host of them all despite not having done the gig in years, and the irreverent turn by David Letterman lands just about exactly where you would expect.
With all that in mind, take a look at how the past 25 years of Oscar ceremonies, from 1995 to 2020, have fared on the Tomatometer!
12%
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26%
- -
26%
- -
30%
- -
32%
- -
34%
- -
33%
- -
33%
- -
43%
- -
47%
14%
47%
- -
45%
- -
48%
- -
52%
- -
52%
- -
54%
- -
53%
- -
57%
- -
59%
- -
59%
- -
60%
- -
67%
43%
69%
- -
70%
32%
74%
50%
82%
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