This year’s Academy Awards show was full of history-making moments. Halle Berry and Denzel Washington had historic wins. After 16 nominations, singer/songwriter Randy Newman finally won an Oscar for Best Original Song. The show was also the longest ever, clocking in at four hours and 23 minutes.

So, ABC and the Academy are wondering why the ratings were so low? Well, maybe it’s because the show was too long. Very few people outside of entertainment writers and movie buffs seemed to watch the entire broadcast. There is no reason why an awards telecast should last so long. Perhaps it’s time for Oscar to do some trimming, and here are a few suggestions.

Your regular everyday movie-goer/TV viewer probably does not care about what movie wins for Best Make-up or Best Sound Editing. Perhaps the Oscars should take a cue from the folks at the Grammy awards and give these awards away in an earlier ceremony. An even better compromise would be to do what the Tony Awards do, air those awards earlier on another network. I am sure that “E!” would be more than happy to air some early awards instead of Joan Rivers.

Another problem with this year’s telecast was the fact that some categories had to be introduced with a “short film.” Well, those short films can add up to a large amount of time. Next time, cut the short film business. It’s not necessary.

Of course, it does not help when the broadcast goes on until midnight and beyond. If you think your show might run four hours plus, perhaps it might be a bright idea if you started the telecast earlier. The Oscars were broadcast on a Sunday in March this year. With the exception of some wrestling on MTV and perhaps “60 Minutes,” I can’t think of anything on Sunday night television that is worth watching. What harm would it do to start the broadcast at 7? Even if the show runs late, people can still go to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour.

Another way to save the time would be to cut some of the banter between the presenters. Some of the chit chat went on a little too long. Woody Allen’s spiel, which went into great detail about how he ended up on the show, was way too long. Yes, Allen is a big name in Hollywood, but that does not mean he can bore an audience senseless with endless babble. Some of the other presentations sounded like the actors were having these words shoved down their throats. We don’t need the historical background about each category; just announce the nominees and give someone the award.

If you are going to have a performance, make sure it has something to do with movies or the Oscars. The performance by Cirque du Soleil was nice, even waking up the audience, but it really had nothing to do with the show. Performances should stick to the songs and scores that are actually up for an Oscar.

The Academy Awards are an important event; however, the average movie-goer is not going to care if the ceremony around it is drawn out, overly dramatic, and ends in the late night hours. If the Grammys, Emmys, Tonys and pretty much any other award show can give out the goods in three hours or less then the Oscars should be able to do it, too.