The Academy is finally leaning into the inevitable. On Tuesday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and ABC locked in the dates for the 99th and 100th Academy Awards, effectively setting a countdown clock for traditional television. It's the end of an era that lasted over half a century.
The 99th Oscars will air on March 14, 2027, and the milestone 100th Oscars will follow on March 5, 2028. Both shows will start at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT), keeping the earlier start time that was recently adopted to help East Coast viewers actually stay awake for the Best Picture announcement. But these aren't just dates on a calendar. They represent the final goodbye to ABC and the Dolby Theatre before the world’s most famous awards show packs its bags for a digital future. Discover more on a connected topic: this related article.
The move to YouTube and the Peacock Theater
If you think these dates are just standard industry housekeeping, you're missing the bigger picture. After the 2028 ceremony, the Oscars are ditching linear television. Starting in 2029, the show moves to YouTube under a massive 10-year deal.
It’s a gutsy move. Moving to a streaming-first platform like YouTube is a clear admission that the 18-to-49 demographic isn't buying cable packages anymore. Ratings for the 98th Oscars, hosted by Conan O’Brien, hit 17.86 million viewers. That’s a 9% slide from the previous year. The Academy knows the ship is sinking, and they're jumping to a lifeboat that already has a billion users. Additional analysis by Rolling Stone delves into comparable views on the subject.
The scenery is changing too. Since 2002, the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood has been the "home" of the Oscars. That ends in 2028. For the 101st ceremony in 2029, the production moves to the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles. It’s part of a decade-long agreement with AEG. Basically, the Academy is trading the old-school glitz of Hollywood Boulevard for the corporate-sleek vibe of L.A. Live.
Actor Awards and the Netflix factor
The Oscars aren't the only ones locking in their future. SAG-AFTRA also dropped dates for The Actor Awards (the ceremony formerly known as the SAG Awards). This show has become the most accurate "weather vane" for who will actually take home the Oscar.
The 33rd Actor Awards will stream on Netflix on February 28, 2027, and the 34th will air on February 20, 2028.
Netflix has played this perfectly. While the Academy is still tethered to ABC for two more years, the actors have already fully embraced the streaming world. If you look at the 2026 winners, the correlation is almost 1:1. All four major acting winners at the Actor Awards—Michael B. Jordan (Sinners), Jessie Buckley (Hamnet), Sean Penn (One Battle After Another), and Amy Madigan (Weapons)—repeated their wins at the Oscars. If you want to win your Oscar pool in 2027 or 2028, you just have to watch Netflix in February.
Key dates for the 99th Oscars season
If you’re a filmmaker or a studio head, the 2027 ceremony starts right now. The Academy released a strict timeline for the 99th cycle, and there's no room for late entries.
- Eligibility Period: January 1, 2026, to December 31, 2026
- Submission Deadline: November 12, 2026
- Governors Awards: November 15, 2026
- Shortlist Announcement: December 15, 2026
- Nominations Announcement: January 21, 2027
- Final Voting Ends: March 4, 2027
It’s worth noting that ABC isn't going down without a fight. Even though they're losing the Oscars after 2028, the network is loading up on other premium live events. They’ve snatched the Grammy Awards from CBS starting in 2027 and will host Super Bowl LXI that same February. It's a weird transition period where ABC will briefly be the center of the universe before the Oscars move to the internet for good.
Why the 100th anniversary matters
The 2028 ceremony will be the 100th time the statuettes are handed out. Expect a nostalgia-heavy telecast. The Academy loves a montage, and they'll likely spend half the night celebrating their own history before the big move to YouTube.
The 2026 film slate already looks like a heavyweight fight. With Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Three, Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary, and Tom Cruise in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger, the lead-up to these final ABC years is going to be intense.
Don't wait until 2027 to start tracking these races. The "Oscar season" is effectively year-round now. If you're a member of the guild, keep your eyes on the November 12 submission deadline for the 99th awards. For everyone else, mark March 14, 2027, on your calendar as the beginning of the end for the Oscars as we've known them for 50 years.
