Nobody is as attentive to awards shows today as they once were.
Mid-January saw the Golden Globes draw only 6.3 Million viewers on television. It was the lowest viewing audience in many years. 26% reductionComparing 2021 to now, the audience is a lot larger. The controversy surrounding this awards show dates back years. Critics accused Hollywood Foreign Press Association as being racist.
Even though they had spent over a year perfecting their diversity programs, no one was able to watch the ceremony.
Not only is the Globes suffering from an inordinate lack of viewership, but so are many other awards shows. In September, the 74th Annual Emmy Awards attracted a mere 5.9 million eyes, a huge 25% drop from the previous year’s show. This event was billed as “television’s biggest night,”In 2022, it fell below expectations.
Meanwhile, even the glitz and glamor of the Oscars wasn’t enough to draw people in like it has in the past. The 94th Academy Awards It was a massive failurebecause it is the second-least viewed Oscars show in history since Nielsen began to track viewers in the middle of 1970s.
In the past, major broadcasts such as the Academy Awards attracted a larger audience than the Super Bowl. So what’s going on with awards shows? Is TV watching just getting bored?
There are several explanations for what’s going on and most of them aren’t pandemic related. But the pause in live broadcasts did affect viewership numbers and those people realized they don’t miss watching enough to tune back in.
“Once you’ve broken the habit, it’s hard to get them back,”Preston Beckman was a media consultant, who previously worked at Fox News and NBC. TelledLosing Awards Shows: The LA Times
In the same article it was noted that the demographic of 18 to 49, whom they considered the most desirable to advertisers, no longer cares about live broadcasts in the same manner as previous generations. These viewers are hooked on streaming services, and while that may mean missing out on Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on live TV, there’s always Twitter and thousands of follow-up memes to catch them up on what happened.
There’s a consensus among viewers that these shows are long, boring, and unnecessary. Even TV and movie fans who put value in which projects win don’t care to spend three hours of their lives waiting to find out the results.
Further, awards shows aren’t doing themselves any favors by nominating obscure, niche films that most people haven’t heard of. Would-be viewers are less likely to watch because they don’t agree that these are the best entertainment being created.
“As social media has risen, awards shows generally have declined because award shows represent a very top-down structure. ‘We, institution, will tell you, customer, what it is that you should like,’”George Howard, Berklee College of Music Professor TelledBU News Service explains the reasons people turned off their TVs. “Now, that’s been inverted, where it’s ‘we, customer, will tell you, institution, what we like.’”
And let’s not forget one of the most common complaints about watching millionaires hand each other gold statues, a sentiment which rubs some people wrong even when the economy is healthy.
“The problem is, the big stars are completely dependent on the institution, so they have to play along with the charade that is totally self-congratulatory and totally divorced from any type of reality in order to keep the gravy train going,”Howard observed. “People, frankly, do not care.”
There’s another important problem with awards shows that the media rarely talks about. Celebrities are now using the awards ceremony platform as a way to promote their Left-wing views, alienating half of their audience. Viewers are sick of being lectured, so they’re simply not watching anymore.
Even the LA Times admittedWriting, this is a significant reason why viewership declined. “some audience members don’t want to hear stars presenting their political positions on the programs.”
Organisers of the awards show have tried to bring back viewers. In 2020, the HFPA invited Ricky Gervais to host the Golden Globes, knowing he’d be controversial enough to attract viewers on both sides of the political spectrum.
British comedian completely skewered or “woke”Hollywood made jokes about Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein while Prince Andrew, Prince Andrew, MeToo, and MeToo were being watched by movie stars such as Tom Hanks with pure shock.
“You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything,”He told celebrities gathered around him. “You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg.”
“If you win, come up, accept your little award, thank your agent, and your God and f*** off,”He stated. “You say you’re woke but the companies you work for in China — unbelievable. Apple, Amazon, Disney. If ISIS started a streaming service you’d call your agent, wouldn’t you?”
Gervais isn’t conservative, but it had been so long since liberals allowed honest jokes that viewers immediately branded him that way.
“How the f*** can teasing huge corporations and the richest, most privileged people in the world be considered right-wing?”He wonderedFollow us on Twitter.
Predictably, Gervais wasn’t invited back to host the Globes. But it’s unclear if a provocative host would do anything to delay the continuing slow death march of the once mighty award show genre.
To broadcast the awards show, ABC, CBS, and NBC have to pay extraordinary licensing fees. If viewership continues declining, there could come a point when the networks consider it too costly to keep them just for nostalgia’s sake.
Who would care if they left?
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