With no strike to foil Hollywood’s biggest night, the movie world is gearing up for the 80th Academy Awards Feb. 24. While many are busy speculating who will go home with one of the famous gold men, one question everyone seems to be avoiding is whether anyone really cares:

It’s not the kind of question anyone in Tinseltown would ask aloud. However, the entertainment industry must surely be wondering if its biggest night has started, like the pictures in “Sunset Boulevard,” to become small.

“The Oscars Must Die,”headlined a Marc Peyser column on Newsweek.com, calling the show “freeze-dried.” “[C]onsidering the anticipation and hype that precede the show every year, this is one pretty awful excuse for A-list entertainment,” he wrote.

“[O]nce again, there are lots of films that most people haven’t seen and don’t care about,” wrote Slate’s “Hollywoodland” columnist Kim Masters after the nominations were announced. “Should commercial success figure into Oscar nominations? Of course not. But when it comes to generating big ratings for the telecast, this year’s slate spells trouble.”

The last time I remember watching the Oscars, the year was 1998, I was 16, and “Titanic” took home 11 Oscars. It was a complete waste of my time–and certainly not worth all the begging I had to do to get my parents to let me stay up to see the conclusion. Does anyone really care to watch the Oscars anymore, or is it perhaps time to let the show die?