The Oscars 2026 wasn't all about golden moments. The producer of the March 15 ceremony addressed the backlash over how the songwriters of "Golden" from Kpop Demon Hunters, who won Best Original Song, were forced to cut their acceptance speech short. After performer Ejae stepped away from the microphone to allow another songwriter to speak, the orchestra began to play them offstage as the telecast went to commercial break.
In a March 16 interview with Variety, Rob Mills, the executive vice president of unscripted and alternative entertainment at Walt Disney Television, said, "One thing we'll look at post-mortem for next year is how we're handling speeches. I don't know what the most elegant solution is, but it's obviously something we should look at really, really long and hard."
Mills understands how "difficult" it must be "to cut somebody off when it's their one moment." He continued, "Do we need to look at it and say, OK, designate one person to speak? Maybe you continue it backstage, and we have a feed on social media or something like that." Whatever the case may be next year, Mills hopes to find "the most elegant solution" that will allow all winners to have their time in the spotlight.
But the "Golden" songwriters weren't the only ones who faced difficulties in getting their speeches in at the Conan O'Brien-hosted award show. After a historical tie in the Best Live Action Short Film category, Two People Exchanging Saliva filmmaker Alexandre Singh, who was asked to deliver his speech following the producers of The Singers, had his time cut short. In fact, the microphone started to lower down into the stage just as he approached it.
O'Brien quipped following the technical gaffe, "I just want to say congratulations to both winners. You just ruined 22 million Oscar pools. I know we're tight, but to retract a microphone on a man as he's speaking is hilarious."
