Suggestions to spice up the Oscars

FINAL Oscar voting has closed; all that's left to get through are a few parties, the red carpet and finally, on Sunday night, the ceremony.

Ah, the ceremony.

At 3-1/2 hours in a good year and with about two dozen categories to plough through, perhaps a quarter of which are of zero interest to the tens of millions tuning in, the raison d'être of awards season invariably feels like a marathon, without that post-race endorphin rush.