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The Shortest Oscars in Over 30 Years

Best Actor winner Jean Dujardin walks off the stage with dog Uggie after The Artist won Best Picture at the 84th Annual Academy Awards.

Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

On Friday I pointed out that while jokes may persist that the Oscars are longer every year, they’ve actually been trending shorter over the last decade. Last night, that trend continued, with a show that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences clocked at 3 hours and 8 minutes (I clocked it at closer to 3 hours 12 minutes, if you include the lengthy credits). As long as the show may have seemed, that time made last night’s show the shortest since the 53rd Academy Awards, hosted by Johnny Carson, in 1981.