The 90th Academy Awards are presented at a live televised ceremony,
most commonly in late February or early March following the relevant
calendar year, and six weeks after the announcement of the nominees. It
is the culmination of the film awards season, which usually begins
during November or December of the previous year. This is an elaborate
extravaganza, with the invited guests walking up the red carpet in the
creations of the most prominent fashion designers of the day. Black tie
dress is the most common outfit for men, although fashion may dictate
not wearing a bow-tie, and musical performers sometimes do not adhere to
this. (The artists who recorded the nominees for Best Original Song
quite often perform those songs live at the awards ceremony, and the
fact that they are performing is often used to promote the television
broadcast).
The Academy Awards is the only awards show
that is televised live in all United States time zones (excluding
Hawaii; they aired live in Alaska starting in 2011 for the first time
since 1996), Canada, the United Kingdom, and gathers millions of viewers
elsewhere throughout the world.[38] The 2007 ceremony was watched by
more than 40 million Americans. Other awards ceremonies (such as the
Emmys, Golden Globes, and Grammys) are broadcast live in the Eastern
& Central time zones, but are on tape delay on the West Coast and
might not air the same day outside North America (if the awards are even
televised).