By now, you know the 93rd Oscars are this Sunday, April 25 on ABC. But the fact that there’s Oscars-centric content programmed all week long? That might come as more of a surprise.
Movies’ biggest night makes a cameo nearly everywhere this week, from talk show pranks to Simpsons marathons to American Idol. For a guide on how to warm up for this weekend, follow the schedule below:
Monday
The FX Movie Channel did their homework, piecing together a week-long and decades-spanning marathon of 29 Oscar-nominated and -winning classics. It’s tempting to stay up late all week to watch everything, but it’s probably best we pick just a few favorites—like The Hustler, Alien, My Cousin Vinny, and Get Out—and record the rest. The blitz starts at 6 am on Monday morning, so set your DVR.
Wednesday
A few episodes of ABC News’ Inside the Oscars podcast have already been released this year (focused on Oscars fashion, campaigning, trivia, and production), and one more will drop Wednesday.
Thursday
If you’ve never seen the Oscars-themed versions of Jimmy Kimmel’s “Lie Witness News” —in which dishonest passersby go on and on about ludicrous movie moments that never really happened—we invite you to fix that right now. Last year, one man gushed about how “Tonight We’re Gonna Party Like It’s 1917” was an undeniably catchy feel-good song, while one woman said with a straight face that Scarlett Johannson’s performance as the rabbit in Jojo Rabbit was “amazing” and “not too dramatic”... (Spoiler alert: none of these things were real.) This year’s airs during the Thursday episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, 11:35 pm ET on ABC.
Friday
A bit more mainstream than the deep cuts one happening on FXM, this three-day Oscar movie marathon on FX will feature the likes of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Shawshank Redemption, and Bohemian Rhapsody, and launches on Friday at 4 pm ET.
Saturday
We never imagined that 56 episodes of The Simpsons would make the perfect Oscars appetizer, but with curation this fun, they certainly do. Starting Saturday at 12 pm ET on FXX, the Oscars-adjacent marathon kicks off with 20+ Simpsons episodes containing homages to previously nominated movies—ones with titles like “All About Lisa,” Haw-Haw Land,” and “The Debarted.” Then, at midnight, the next batch of 20 or so features Oscar nominees as guest voice actors: Allison Janney, John Legend, Frances McDormand, Natalie Portman, and Meryl Streep, just to name a few. Just a few hours before showtime on Sunday, the spree wraps up with 8 episodes that, appropriately, include a red carpet, even if just for a brief moment.
In the spirit of the Oscars, ABC will rerun last week’s Oscar-themed American Idol night, during which this season’s top 12 picked sang lauded songs like “City of Stars” (La La Land), “Over the Rainbow” (The Wizard of Oz), and “Happy” (Despicable Me 2). If nothing else, Lionel Richie’s performance of “Say You, Say Me” (for which he won the Original Song Oscar back in 1985) alone makes it worth the watch at 9 pm ET.
And the third and final movie marathon launches on Freeform Saturday at 7 am, a two-day streak of animated nominees starting with Lilo & Stitch and culminating in Coco.
Sunday
The first-ever musical pre-show production of its kind, Oscars: Into the Spotlight will air right before the big event, at 6:30 pm ET / 3:30 pm PT on ABC. With artists like Celeste, H.E.R., Leslie Odom Jr., and more booked to perform the 2021 Original Song nominees, Into the Spotlight will function as a mini Oscars music festival. Hosts Ariana DeBose and Lil Rey Howery will guide us through this stacked lineup from a location making its on-screen debut: the rooftop terrace of the soon-to-open Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in LA.
The 2021 Oscars will be held on Sunday, April 25th at 8 pm ET. Watch it live on ABC or go to ABC.com and log in with your TV provider.