Oscars commercial to tease MSG Sphere

Already featured to tens of millions of viewers during the Super Bowl, The MSG Sphere sought the Oscars audience on Sunday.

The venue plans to air a 30-second commercial during the Academy Awards telecast, airing at 5 p.m. Sunday on ABC. Jimmy Kimmel hosts.

The spot as it appears on YouTube is titled, “Do Robots Have Lightbulb Moments?” Apparently so. The spot shows a line of computer coding (seemingly random; maybe there’s a message there), leading to images of a skeletal version of the venue. The shot pulls back, and The Sphere is actually the eye of an AI-fashioned robot.

“The Sphere is the future of entertainment, and we’re excited to give audiences a sneak peek during Hollywood’s biggest night,” an MSG Entertainment rep said Sunday.

The venue is scheduled to open in September. U2 is the first, and only, superstar headliner confirmed, expected to open Sept. 29-30. Specific performance dates and on-sale information is yet to be announced.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.