Awards Shows Are Dying, But Does Anyone Care?

People aren’t as interested in awards shows now as they were in the past.

The Golden Globes managed to draw only 6.3 million viewers in mid-January. This is the lowest number of television viewers in many years. 26% decrease In audience, compared to 2021. This awards show has been mired in controversy for many years. Critics accused the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) of being racist.

However, the ceremony was not watched by anyone even though the participants had spent a whole year fine-tuning diversity initiatives.

The Globes are not alone in experiencing a severe lack of viewership. In September, the 74th Annual Emmy Awards attracted a mere 5.9 million eyes, a huge 25% drop from the previous year’s show. It was described as “The most important event in the world.” “television’s biggest night,” 2022 was disappointing.

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 was a huge fail because it is the second-least viewed Oscars since Nielsen started to track viewers in the mid-1970s.

Once upon a time, broadcasts like 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, a media specialist who previously worked at Fox and NBC, said, told Losing Awards Shows: The LA Times

According to the same article, the audience aged 18-49, who they identified as being the most appealing to advertisers, is not as interested in live broadcasts in the same way that 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 told BU News Service explains why people are tuning out. “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 using the awards ceremony platform to promote their Left-wing views, which is alienating half of their audience. Viewers are sick of being lectured, so they’re simply not watching anymore.

Even the LA Times admitted Writing, this was a key reason for the viewership drop. “some audience members don’t want to hear stars presenting their political positions on the programs.”

The organizers of awards shows have worked hard to get the audience back. 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.

The British comedian completely skewered members “woke” Hollywood was telling jokes all about Jeffrey Epstein (Harvey Weinstein), Prince Andrew and MeToo, while Tom Hanks sat stunned.

“You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything,” The celebrity told the crowd. “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