LOS ANGELES, Calif. (WTVO) — No one will be walking the red carpet at the Oscars this weekend as the organization has decided to forego 61 years of tradition by replacing it with a “champagne” colored carpet this year.

Vanity Fair reported that Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel joked “People have been asking, ‘Is there going to be any trouble this year? Is there going to be any violence this year?’ And we certainly hope not,” he said. “But if there is, I think the decision to go with a champagne carpet rather than a red carpet shows how confident we are that no blood will be shed.”

Why the change? The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ production team have not said.

The 95th Academy Awards will be broadcast from the Dolby Theater on ABC stations this Sunday, March 12th.

Last year, Will Smith’s violent slap of Chris Rock at the Academy Awards appeared to have a negligible impact on the show’s television audience. But the world of social media was a much different story.

The telecast as a whole drew 16.6 million viewers, up 58% from the 2021 show that was dramatically scaled back due to the pandemic, the Nielsen company said. Yet last year’s show was down 30% from the more typical 2020 broadcast, which had been the second-smallest audience.