Oscar shelves newly announced 'Popular Film' category after the move was heavily criticized by all
In what was considered to be a bold move on the part of the Academy Awards to boost its flagging television ratings, the group’s president John Bailey and its CEO Dawn Hudson, in August, said the broadcast will now include a new category for outstanding achievement in popular film. The announcement came shortly after it was reported that the 2018 awards show was the least-watched Oscars to date. Though it pulled in 26.5 million viewers, the ratings were down 19 percent compared to the previous year.
However, the move did not go down as well as Hudson had expected it to. On Friday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) revealed that the new award category it had announced last month will now go into cold storage because of the frosty reception it received. They tried to save face by saying that the move 'merits further study'.
