He continued, “When I first got the job, I said, ‘the show typically is around three plus hours. Let’s make it four hours this year,’ and people looked at me and said, ‘Oh gosh, we knew we shouldn’t have hired that guy.’ I said, ‘Too late.’ But part of the thinking was we’re going to have a four-hour show and we really are, and the show will start in the Dolby and we want to have everyone there with their peers cheering them on, and the televised show does start an hour after that.

And this is like any other live show that makes decisions about what’s going to be on the air and what’s going to make the cut. But make no mistake, without a doubt, we’re going make sure that everybody has their moment because at the end of the day, it’s an entertaining show. We want to be celebratory and fun, but it is about celebrating the most talented people in the world and what they do, and we’re determined to do that and do it the right way.”

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has met resistance over its controversial plan not to present eight categories live during the broadcast of the 94th Academy Awards. The Academy plans to present Oscars for documentary short, film editing, makeup/hairstyling, original score, production design, animated short, live-action short and sound inside the Dolby Theatre in the hour before the March 27 broadcast commences, recording and editing these into the subsequent live telecast.