Show Your Work: Oscars 2026
Behind the scenes of Oscar weekend - from the red carpet to the website
As we mentioned in last week’s mailbag, we were asked about the work happening behind the scenes at the Oscars, both on the TV production side at ETALK and how we prepare for coverage at LaineyGossip. So this is a post for you work nerds as we break down the writing assignments and the posts on the website and also what it was like all weekend with rehearsals and other technical plans. Plus, by request, more details about my dress and how all that came together.
The first question came from Chris:
I just want all the bts (as in behind the scenes haha, now I feel like I need to clarify) and show your work that both Lainey and the Squawk team had for Oscars night. And also obviously any and all backstage gossip that Lainey might have.
Lainey’s POV on Oscar weekend
Yes, thank you for clarifying, because the only BTS I know is seven: RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook.
While I was tied up with ETALK all Oscar weekend, Sarah took point on LaineyGossip, so she will cover how she managed the workflow on the website and I’ll do the show your work on the television/streaming side.
The ETALK team produced four shows in LA during the Oscars: the Friday episode of the show, the red carpet livestream, the Oscars after-show, and the Monday episode of ETALK. At the best of times, this is always complicated, but we had an extra level of fuckery this time because of travel chaos. Half of our team was supposed to head to LA on the same flight on Thursday, leaving at 8am. We were scheduled to arrive in LA by 1030am local time and prepare for…everything.
But our flight got cancelled, not delayed, straight up CANCELLED, resulting in all of us being reassigned (by the airline) seemingly randomly. Some people re-routed through Seattle, others Las Vegas, others Vancouver. I was put on a direct flight that was scheduled to leave 12 hours after my original flight. The new flight, however, ended up getting delayed by two hours. So I only landed in LA at 1230am, got to the hotel at 130am. And my call time the next morning was 5am. LOOOOOOOOOOL FOREVER.
