The First Ever Oscars 'Crisis Team' Had A Slow Night On The Job
As we all very well know, last year's Oscars was a bit more lively than expected — as in, no one expected nominee Will Smith to storm the stage and slap presenter Chris Rock after Rock made a joke about Smith's wife, Jada. This came just moments before Smith would go on to win the award for best actor. The incident was one of the most talked-about news stories for weeks following last year's ceremony and made its way back into public discourse in the weeks leading up to this year's Academy Awards, aided by Rock's newly released comedy special on Netflix, "Selective Outrage."
Then, the Academy announced that, in order to combat any future incidents that may arise, they decided to implement a "crisis team." Bill Kramer, CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, told TIME last month that the new crisis team prepared for possible unexpected occurrences. "We've run many scenarios," Kramer said. "So it is our hope that we will be prepared for anything that we may not anticipate right now but that we're planning for just in case it does happen."
However, despite all of the effort put in place, the Oscars went off without a hitch. There was no incident — including any slaps — for the crisis team to deal with.
The 95th Academy Awards went smoothly — and the crisis plan went unused
If you tuned in for the 2023 Oscars, then you know that the night went by smoothly, with no incidents to report. In fact, the night ended with a perfect joke: host Jimmy Kimmel walked off the stage and over to a sign that read, "Number of Oscars Telecasts Without an Incident" and happily flipped the "00" to "01." Not only did the joke reference the fact that last year had one of the biggest incidents possible, but it was made even funnier considering the fact that Kimmel was hosting the night that "Moonlight" got mixed up with "La La Land," which was undeniably another type of crisis.
Bill Kramer told TIME that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had multiple "crisis plans" in place just in case something were to happen, like last year's slap. "[The plans] allow us to say this is the group that we have to gather very quickly," Kramer said. "This is how we all come together. This is the spokesperson. This will be the statement."
Much to the Academy's relief, no such plans had to be used. In fact, the closest we got to a crisis was presenter Elizabeth Banks tripping on her dress (and nearly falling on stage) and the awkward moment when Kimmel asked Malala Yousafzai if she thinks Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine. Plus, most people just want to talk about all of the wins for the much beloved "Everything Everywhere All at Once" or Brendan Fraser's epic comeback win. Who knows, maybe the crisis team will have more to do next year.