The 88th Academy Awards are scheduled to air on Sunday, beginning at 8:30 p.m. Eastern; the audience complaining about the Oscars being too long is unofficially scheduled to start at around 10 p.m.

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Though the categories presented during the live telecast have remained relatively unchanged, the Oscars seem to run longer every year.

Part of the problem is the late start; the 86th Academy Awards in 2014 started at 8:30 p.m. and ran for 3 hours and 34 minutes. However, last year's ceremony started earlier at 8 p.m., but ran for 3 hours and 43 minutes. The record, however, is still the 74th Academy Awards in 2002, which ran for a leg-numbing 4 hours and 23 minutes — and past midnight.

Another problem is acceptance speeches by winners that run way too long. Fortunately, this year, the Academy has asked nominees for a list of people to thank, which will scroll at the bottom of the screen during the acceptance speech.

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The myriad of performances also eat up time. Variety reports that two performances by nominees in the best original song category — "Manta Ray" performed by Antony Hegarty, from the documentary Racing Extinction, and "Simple Song #3" performed by South Korean singer Sumi Jo, from the film Youth — have already been cut from the telecast. The remaining three performances in the category are arguably higher profile: Lady Gaga's "Til It Happens to You" from the documentary The Hunting Ground, Sam Smith's "Writing's On The Wall" from Spectre and the Weeknd's Grammy Award-winning "Earned It" from Fifty Shades of Grey.

Hopefully these two changes will help alleviate the glacial pace that usually bogs down the experience of watching the Oscars.