Cut the editors? But maybe keep the tribute to celluloid tap dancing?

The brouhaha over the plan to shave time off the Oscars ceremony by handing out four awards during commercial breaks has been resolved with the film academy calling take-backsies and declaring that all 24 awards would indeed be televised.

The litany of complaints about the show’s length (averaging 3½ hours in recent years) has become an annual rite. Last year, with disastrously low viewership, the show ran 3 hours and 53 minutes. This year, even without a host (a whole separate brouhaha), the academy tried to cut short cinematography, editing, live-action short, and makeup and hairstyling in the live broadcast. But outrage aside, how efficient would that have been in the first place? The Times studied 10 years’ worth of recent Oscars shows — the last nine, plus the last no-host year, 1989 — to see.

The show’s ratings have trended down the last five years as telecast length has increased, but length and viewership aren’t directly correlated. The 2013 edition was 3 hours, 35 minutes — 22 minutes longer than 2012 — and increased viewership, to 40.4 million. And the 2014 ceremony gained more than 3.5 million viewers over 2013. It was one minute shorter.

The 1989 “hostless” awards Winners walking to stage Speeches by winners Song performances and production numbers Presenters Host time TOTAL RUN TIME 3:19 * 1 hour 2 3 HOURS MINUTES Montages including “In Memoriam” Special honors and academy business Commercials, promos and outros Speeches totaled only 17 minutes, shortest of the ceremonies surveyed Winners walking to stage Song performances and production numbers Speeches by winners Host time Presenters TOTAL RUN TIME 3:19 * 1 hour 2 3 HOURS MINUTES Montages including “In Memoriam” Special honors and academy business Commercials, promos and outros Speeches totaled only 17 minutes, shortest of the ceremonies surveyed Song performances and production numbers Winners walking to stage Speeches by winners Host time Presenters TOTAL RUN TIME 3:19 * HOURSJJMINUTES 1 hour 2 3 Commercials, promos and outros Special honors and academy business Montages including “In Memoriam” Speeches totaled only 17 minutes, shortest of the ceremonies surveyed Song performances and production numbers Winners walking to stage Speeches by winners Host time Presenters TOTAL 3:19 (hours: minutes) * 1 hour 2 3 Montages including “In Memoriam” Special honors and academy business Commercials, promos and outros Speeches totaled only 17 minutes, shortest of the ceremonies surveyed *Some footage was not available at press time

Run time breakdowns: 2010 to 2018 2010 Hosts: Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin Best picture: “The Hurt Locker” TOTAL RUN TIME 3:37 HOURS MINUTES Kathryn Bigelow becomes first female director to win; Sandra Bullock wins 2011 Hosts: James Franco and Anne Hathaway Best picture: “The King’s Speech” 3:16 * Avg. gross of best picture nominees: $1.36 billion; lost nearly 4 million viewers from 2010 2012 Host: Billy Crystal Best picture: “The Artist” 3:13 * Avg. gross of best picture nominees: Only $69.8 million; gained nearly 2 million viewers from 2011 2013 Host: Seth MacFarlane Best picture: “Argo” 3:35 Jennifer Lawrence wins; Michelle Obama presents best picture 2014 Host: Ellen Degeneres Best picture: “12 Years a Slave” 3:34 “The Selfie”; highest viewership since 2000 2015 Host: Neil Patrick Harris Best picture: “Birdman” 3:43 #OscarsSoWhite; viewership drops by 6.4 million 2016 Host: Chris Rock Best picture: “Spotlight” 3:37 Leonardo DiCaprio wins; “Thanks to” crawl played under speeches to save time; #OscarsSoWhite Part II 2017 Host: Jimmy Kimmel Best picture: “Moonlight” 3:49 “La La Land” mistakenly given best picture; tourists surprised with Oscar visit 2018 Host: Jimmy Kimmel Best picture: “The Shape of Water” 3:53 Stars surprised moviegoers at nearby cinema; viewership drops by 6.4 million 2010 Hosts: Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin Best picture: “The Hurt Locker” TOTAL RUN TIME 3:37 HOURS MINUTES Kathryn Bigelow becomes first female director to win; Sandra Bullock wins 2011 Hosts: James Franco and Anne Hathaway Best picture: “The King’s Speech” 3:16 * Avg. gross of best picture nominees: $1.36 billion; lost nearly 4 million viewers from 2010 2012 Host: Billy Crystal Best picture: “The Artist” 3:13 * Avg. gross of best picture nominees: Only $69.8 million; gained nearly 2 million viewers from 2011 2013 Host: Seth MacFarlane Best picture: “Argo” 3:35 Jennifer Lawrence wins; Michelle Obama presents best picture 2014 Host: Ellen Degeneres Best picture: “12 Years a Slave” 3:34 “The Selfie”; highest viewership since 2000 2015 Host: Neil Patrick Harris Best picture: “Birdman” 3:43 #OscarsSoWhite; viewership drops by 6.4 million 2016 Host: Chris Rock Best picture: “Spotlight” 3:37 Leonardo DiCaprio wins; “Thanks to” crawl played under speeches to save time; #OscarsSoWhite Part II 2017 Host: Jimmy Kimmel Best picture: “Moonlight” 3:49 “La La Land” mistakenly given best picture; tourists surprised with Oscar visit 2018 Host: Jimmy Kimmel Best picture: “The Shape of Water” 3:53 Stars surprised moviegoers at nearby cinema; viewership drops by 6.4 million 2010 Hosts: Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin Best picture: “The Hurt Locker” TOTAL RUN TIME 3:37 HOURSJJMINUTES Kathryn Bigelow becomes first female director to win; Sandra Bullock wins 2011 Hosts: James Franco and Anne Hathaway Best picture: “The King’s Speech” 3:16 * Avg. gross of best picture nominees: $1.36 billion; lost nearly 4 million viewers from 2010 2012 Host: Billy Crystal Best picture: “The Artist” 3:13 * Avg. gross of best picture nominees: only $69.8 million; gained nearly 2 million viewers from 2011 2013 Host: Seth MacFarlane Best picture: “Argo” 3:35 Jennifer Lawrence wins; Michelle Obama presents best picture 2014 Host: Ellen Degeneres Best picture: “12 Years a Slave” 3:34 “The Selfie”; highest viewership since 2000 2015 Host: Neil Patrick Harris Best picture: “Birdman” 3:43 #OscarsSoWhite; viewership drops by 6.4 million 2016 Host: Chris Rock Best picture: “Spotlight” 3:37 Leonardo DiCaprio wins; “Thanks to” crawl played under speeches to save time; #OscarsSoWhite Part II 2017 Host: Jimmy Kimmel Best picture: “Moonlight” 3:49 “La La Land” mistakenly given best picture; tourists surprised with Oscar visit 2018 Host: Jimmy Kimmel Best picture: “The Shape of Water” 3:53 Stars surprised moviegoers at nearby cinema; viewership drops by 6.4 million 2010 Hosts: Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin Best picture: “The Hurt Locker” TOTAL 3:37 (hours: minutes) Kathryn Bigelow becomes first female director to win; Sandra Bullock wins 2011 Hosts: James Franco and Anne Hathaway Best picture: “The King’s Speech” * 3:16 Avg. gross of best picture nominees: $1.36 billion; lost nearly 4 million viewers from 2010 2012 Host: Billy Crystal Best picture: “The Artist” * 3:13 Avg. gross of best picture nominees: Only $69.8 million; gained nearly 2 million viewers from 2011 2013 Host: Seth MacFarlane Best picture: “Argo” 3:35 Jennifer Lawrence wins; Michelle Obama presents best picture 2014 Host: Ellen Degeneres Best picture: “12 Years a Slave” 3:34 “The Selfie”; highest viewership since 2000 2015 Host: Neil Patrick Harris Best picture: “Birdman” 3:43 #OscarsSoWhite; viewership drops by 6.4 million 2016 Host: Chris Rock Best picture: “Spotlight” 3:37 Leonardo DiCaprio wins; “Thanks to” crawl played under speeches to save time; #OscarsSoWhite Part II 2017 Host: Jimmy Kimmel Best picture: “Moonlight” 3:49 “La La Land” mistakenly given best picture; tourists surprised with Oscar visit 2018 Host: Jimmy Kimmel Best picture: “The Shape of Water” 3:53 Stars surprised moviegoers at nearby cinema; viewership drops by 6.4 million

By far the largest non-awards time expenditure has been for ads. During the years examined, commercial breaks averaged around 38 minutes per telecast. No one’s telling ABC to sell fewer ads (… unless they sold fewer ads at a higher premium?), but we’re talking about giving out 24 awards, plus some special honors and an In Memoriam montage, and still squeezing in a little entertainment in about 2 hours and 20 minutes for a three-hour show.

Taken together, cinematography, editing, live-action short, and makeup and hairstyling winners have averaged 5 minutes and 11 seconds from the moment they were announced to the end of their speeches. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had proposed reducing those four awards to edited speeches selecting the “emotionally resonant” moments. Moving them to the kids’ table (like overflow candidates in the last Republican primary) would have saved about three minutes — not to mention shortchanging the non-winning nominees.

Averages, approximately, for 2010 through 2018 Song performances and production numbers Montages including “In Memoriam” Commercials, promos and outros Host time Presenters 31 minutes 48 55 15 15 TOTAL RUN TIME 3:32 1 hour 2 3 HOURS MINUTES 12 30 6 Winners walking to stage Special honors and academy business Speeches by winners Commercials, promos and outros Montages including “In Memoriam” Song performances and production numbers Host time Presenters 31 minutes 48 55 15 15 TOTAL RUN TIME 3:32 HOURS MINUTES 1 hour 2 3 12 30 6 Winners walking to stage Special honors and academy business Speeches by winners Commercials, promos and outros 48 Montages including “In Memoriam” 15 Song performances and production numbers 15 Host time 31 minutes Presenters 55 TOTAL RUN TIME 3:32 HOURSJJMINUTES 1 hour 2 3 Winners walking to stage 12 Special honors and academy business 6 Speeches by winners 30 Commercials, promos and outros 48 Montages including “In Memoriam” 15 Song performances and production numbers 15 Host time 31 minutes Presenters 55 TOTAL 3:32 (hours: minutes) 1 hour 2 3 Winners walking to stage 12 Special honors and academy business 6 Speeches by winners 30

One area to consider is the time winners take to get from their seats to the stage. Including all 24 categories, as an average over those 10 years, that takes nearly 12 minutes per show. If the academy moved nominees to an area backstage before the winner is announced, that would likely save more than six minutes, and we’d still get the happy hugging shots with their loved ones during the copious outros and promos in every telecast (about eight minutes, on average). To be sure, it could be a Hollywood holding area, with soft lighting and Evian and mints. A fainting couch, at minimum.

Of note, though no one has suggested shunting the acting winners to off-air presentations, that group of four categories averages nearly double the air time of the originally targeted four categories: 9 minutes, 51 seconds.

Some years have had more non-nominee montages and musical interludes than others, but the average over that time has been about 16 minutes per show. Simply eliminating filmed tributes to previous acting winners and the four “inspiration”-themed clips packages would have saved the 2017 show more than 11 minutes.

The infamous, no-host barbarism of the 1989 show clocked in officially at 3 hours, 19 minutes, but at what cost? Oh, the humanity. The speeches (in only 22 categories, as animated feature wasn’t yet an award and one winner wasn’t present) were lightning-fast. Five were under 30 seconds. But the national nightmare known as the “Snow White Opening Number” was just one of the detours to Hades the show took. Others included an “Oscar Winners of Tomorrow” song-and-dance number and a tribute to tap dancing. Non-awards-related total: right around 54 minutes of air time. Yep, nearly a third of the show.

Going hostless could drastically reduce the more-than 30 minutes averaged by “host business” over this period. But it could also drastically reduce the entertainment value. Hosts have yielded some of the show’s best moments – the good monologues (Billy Crystal), the Ellen selfie that broke the Internet, Mean Tweets (a bit from host Jimmy Kimmel’s regular gig). They’ve also included a very stoned-looking James Franco. Removing them altogether would yield a straight-ahead, awards-centric proceeding with considerably less wacky brio, but then what would you have? The BAFTAs? Just how much fun do you want to bleed out of a bunch of adults handing one another trophies? Still, eliminating just half the host “bits” (Kimmel’s tour bus guests, say) from the show could easily yield an additional five minutes.

Recommendations Shorten the bits done by the host by 5 minutes Cut non-nominee montages and production numbers, saving 16 minutes TOTAL RUN TIME 3:07 HOURS MINUTES 1 hour 2 3 Instead of walking to the stage, winners arrive from backstage, saving 6 minutes Shorten the bits done by the host by 5 minutes Cut non-nominee montages and production numbers, saving 16 minutes TOTAL RUN TIME 3:07 HOURS MINUTES 1 hour 2 3 Instead of walking to the stage, winners arrive from backstage, saving 6 minutes Shorten the bits done by the host by 5 minutes Cut non-nominee montages and production numbers, saving 16 minutes TOTAL RUN TIME 3:07 HOURSJJMINUTES 1 hour 2 3 Instead of walking to the stage, winners arrive from backstage, saving 6 minutes Shorten the bits done by the host by 5 minutes Cut non-nominee montages and production numbers, saving 16 minutes TOTAL 3:07 (hours: minutes) 1 hour 2 3 Instead of walking to the stage, winners arrive from backstage, saving 6 minutes

So there you go: Reduce the bits (five minutes), keep In Memoriam but cut the other non-nominee montages and numbers (about 16 minutes), and move the nominees backstage before their category is announced (about six minutes) … you just turned a 3-hour, 30-minute boondoggle into a sleek, three-hour-ish purring machine. And that includes cinematography, editing, makeup and hair, and live-action short. Squeeze just a little more out — the message from the academy president, say (roughly two minutes when it appears) — and you could add a telegenic category that honors “popular films,” such as stunts/choreography, performance capture or adaptation/song score.

You’re welcome, academy.

Times staff writers Makeda Easter and Sonaiya Kelley contributed to this report.