The Grammys last night were great. What can the Oscars learn?

Sunday night’s awards show made all the right choices. But most of those lessons aren’t so replicable to the Oscars.

The annual Grammy Awards took place Saturday night, and it was one of the better-received Awards shows in recent memory. 

The host, Trevor Noah, did a decent job, telling quality jokes and successfully threading the needle where he could be biting and also not leave a bitter taste in everyone’s mouth. There were quite a few fantastic performance moments, from Tracy Chapman returning from years of exile to duet on her song “Fast Car” with Luke Combs, the man who covered it this year, to Billy Joel performing his new song, to 80-year-old Joni Mitchell singing “Both Sides, Now” in her first-ever Grammy performance. The show was praised for threading the needle between the stars of today and legends of the past. 

The set was cool, the direction well done, and no one complained about the three-and-a-half-hour show length, much less the In Memoriam segment that dragged on past the 15-minute mark. There was even, as always, Taylor Swift controversy that had nothing to do with Travis Kelce- Tay-Tay caught some flack for forgetting to thank or acknowledge Celine Dion, who — after reports a couple of months ago that she was in precarious health — appeared and presented her with the Album of the Year award. 

The Academy Awards are just over a month away, and for much of the last year, there has been discontent about the awards, their presentation, and ultimately their ratings. While most years, the Oscar telecast is one of the highest-rated broadcasts on network television that doesn’t involve football, most years it pulls lower ratings than it did the year before.