Oscars Have a “Crisis Team” for This Year’s Ceremony After Will Smith Slap

The Oscars have a “crisis team” for this year’s ceremony after all the hubbub over Chris Rock getting slapped last year. Will Smith’s moment during the telecast has made The Academy take some measures because of how they think they approached that moment. A lot of digital ink has been spilled over that moment. Time talked to Oscars head honcho Bill Kramer about what they’re doing to not have something similar happen again. Now, the chances of such an event happening again are probably like winning the lottery, but The Academy isn’t taking any chances. They’ve established a crisis team to stop anything strange before it starts. Check out what the CEO had to say right here down below!

“Because of last year, we’ve opened our minds to the many things that can happen at the Oscars. But these crisis plans—the crisis communication teams and structures we have in place—allow us to say this is the group that we have to gather very quickly. This is how we all come together,” Kramer explained. “This is the spokesperson. This will be the statement. And obviously depending on the specifics of the crisis, and let’s hope something doesn’t happen and we never have to use these, but we already have frameworks in place that we can modify.”

Preparing For Every Scenario 

Kramer was able to give a breakdown of how many scenarios they went through in anticipating anything else. Seems like an interesting use of resources for sure. “I think that’s why we were much more ready to handle the campaign regulations discussion after nominations,” he said. “You know, that happened on a Tuesday and, six days later, we were able to issue our formal statement from the board that really carved out a plan for us. So you never know exactly what’s going to happen.”

“But you have to have the teams and frameworks in place and the processes in place, to come together to figure things out quickly. But also making sure that you have the right groups of members and leaders and stakeholders who can come together to have a voice in this conversation,” Kramer added. “That’s also very key. And again, we’ve run some great scenarios, but as you said, the specifics may change, and we’ll see what happens.”

Do you like the sound of the crisis team? Let us know down in the comments!