The producers of the Academy Awards are conceding that despite hopes otherwise, this Sunday’s telecast will run more than three hours.

Meanwhile, the Motion Picture Academy separately announced that Bette Midler and Queen will perform.

“We were hired to deliver a shortened show,” said Donna Gigliotti, co-producer, in a New York Times story published Sunday. “How do we do that so you’re not seeing award, award, commercial, award, commercial, award? So boring.”

Yet after the Academy reversed course Friday and said four categories consigned to commercial breaks would return to the live show, the organization asked her if the telecast could still be contained to three hours. “The answer was no,” Gigliotti said.

She had hoped the Academy’s decision to forego a host — after Kevin Hart resigned following past homophobic tweets and jokes for which he has apologized — would have presented a way to end the show by 11 p.m., when viewership drops off significantly. She said the show at least would begin presenting awards sooner than usual without time for a host’s opening monologue or sketch.

Eight people from outside the movie industry are being brought in to lead presentations about certain films. Meanwhile, Queen, now fronted by the late Freddie Mercury’s stand-in, Adam Lambert, will perform on the show. The biopic of Mercury is a best-picture nominee.