The Oscars have been in shocking decline for years—from plummeting ratings, representation issues, the irrelevance of Old Hollywood in the face of streamers (not to mention the Andrea Riseborough controversy, Envelopegate and Will Smith's handsy tantrum). Recently, Former Paramount CEO Barry Diller offered his own prognosis of the beleaguered industry showcase. Spoiler alert: The situation's terminal.

"It's an antiquity," the current IAC and Expedia chairman told Firing Line's Margaret Hoover of the awards process. Citing the Riseborough Affair, Diller noted the internal collapse the movie and awards-show industry have long been suffering. "All awards ceremonies were based on this hierarchical process of a movie going to a theater, building up some word of mouth if it was successful, having that word of mouth carry itself over," Diller said. "That path no longer exists."

This isn't the first time Diller has warned that the sky is falling on the film industry. In 2021, he proclaimed to NPR that the movie business was dead with no path toward revival. Where some may lay blame on increasing ticket prices, the pandemic, the surge of streaming platforms' critical and consumer popularity, Diller notes the perfect storm created by all of these, underscored by the quality over quantity dilemma.

"I used to be in the movie business where you made something really because you cared about it," he told NPR. The very definition of movie, he went on, "is in such transition that it doesn't mean anything right now."