Why didn’t the 2024 Oscars start on time?

After making a big deal about moving up the start of the 96th Oscars telecast by an hour, ABC was forced to delay the start of the ceremony by about six minutes.

The cause appears to be a protestors who were blocking access to to a key intersection where stars and nominees were being dropped off Sunday, March 10, 2024. The protesters were calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas War.

Reports indicated that some last-minute arrivals were being shuttled from their vehicles via golf cart to get to the ceremony on time.

ABC opted to let its pre-Oscar red carpet coverage run over a bit and then ran a commercial break, seemingly to buy time. The show then started as normal.

During his monologue, host Jimmy Kimmel joked that the show was “already over five minutes,” which was presumably a reference to the delay.

For the first time in Oscar history, the show started at 4 p.m. California time, or 7 p.m. eastern. It traditionally has started at 5 p.m. local time, 8 p.m. eatern.

As if the show didn’t need more confusion about time, it also happened to start the day that Daylight Savings Time started in much of the U.S.

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