Should awards shows reserve equal airtime for craft categories and acting awards?

The Oscars are a private television production, not a public utility. Telling its producers exactly how many minutes each award gets is a content mandate, and mandates do not stop where you want them to. Today it is equal minutes for craft categories; tomorrow it is mandated speech lengths, mandated presenter lineups, mandated montages. The guilds already have real leverage: collective bargaining, public pressure, and the 2022 backlash that forced the Academy to reverse course. The Wrap. Use that leverage. But a rule dictating the rundown of a private broadcast substitutes regulation for negotiation, and it will be administered by people whose incentive is avoiding controversy, not honoring film. The craft categories deserve better advocates than a stopwatch.