From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is the business.

You know, it's weird, like when someone's recovering from alcoholism or whatever,

they get through a 12-step program and they have a list of steps they have to go through

before they're presentable.

And maybe there needs to be something like that, like some sort of, you know,

list of things you have to do.

Comedian Lori Kilmartin had some thoughts after Louis C.K. did an unannounced set at a New York comedy club last month, less than a year after revelations of his sexual misconduct.

Kilmartin tells us what a path to redemption in the era of Times Up might look like and why Louis' surprise appearance was not it.

Kilmartin, who writes for Conan, tells us about the challenges that still face female comedians

in 2018 and about her book, Dead People Suck.

But first on the news banter, the Academy concedes that popular is not popular.

Stay tuned, it's the business from KCRW.

I am joined by my colleague in banter, Matt Bellany of the Hollywood Reporter.

Hello, Matt.

Hi there.

So we talked before about how the Academy was under pressure from Disney, which owns ABC, to improve Oscar ratings.

That was the worst ever last year. They've tried things in the past to make the show more relevant.

They tried to expand the best picture category to up to 10, hoping that more popular movies, this was a dark night, what was called a dark night rule

change because dark night didn't make the cut and many people feel it would have if there

was more opportunities. So that was a thing that was tried. So far, that hasn't worked. So they came up

with this idea, not very well-baked idea, I guess I have to say, to create a popular best picture category.

And sadly, they appear not to have thought through at all what that was. And the proof of that is,

...