"One recent producer of the Oscars, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential metrics, said minute-by-minute post-show ratings analysis indicated that 'vast swaths' of people turned off their televisions when celebrities started to opine on politics,” the New York Times reported on Sunday.
Sports and awards shows have been slapped with dropping ratings since last year as athletes and figures become more open about their political beliefs, including denouncing former President Donald Trump and showing support for the Marxist-led Black Lives Matter movement.
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The Grammy Awards, for instance, saw ratings scored a record low of 8.8 million viewers, which was down 53% from 2020. Some of the acts featured Black Lives Matter demonstrators demanding “justice” from President Joe Biden and a raunchy version of “WAP” by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion.
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The ceremony’s poor viewership ran counter to the general positive reaction from those who tuned in to the scaled-down affair. Washington Post pop music critic Chris Richards called it “the most coherent, purposeful, hospitable, gratifying Grammy night of the past 20 years, far and away.”
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The Oscars are set to take place this Sunday, and there’s already speculation it will be a flop with viewers.
“Now, as Hollywood prepares for a coronavirus-delayed Academy Awards telecast on April 25 on ABC, it is faced with the ultimate doomsday scenario: that the viewing public is ready to toss its premier showcase into the entertainment dustbin, plopped next to variety shows. Oscar, meet Lawrence Welk and his bubbles,” the New York Times added in its report.
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Advertisers have also been heated in 2021, with Ferrero Rocher chocolates not returning to run ads and ABC asking for less money to run 30-second advertisements.
“We’re really not getting much advertiser interest,” Michelle Chong, planning director at the agency Fitzco, said. “And it’s not something we’ve been pushing.”
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There was a notable endeavor to try to lessen some of the meshes other award ceremonies encountered during the pandemic era. Last month’s Golden Globes were thwarted by technical issues that made the Zoom setup feel more like an uncomfortable business meeting than a celebrity confab, while conversely, a lack of gaffes made September’s remote Emmys a comparably dull affair.
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As host Trevor Noah told Reuters before the ceremony, Grammy producers “figured out how to make awards shows for the time as opposed to trying to crowbar awards shows into it.”
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