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TV Ratings: Oscars Plummet to Record Low, Down 58% Compared to Last Year

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Cass_Se

Cass_Se

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,124
Blader said:
Wonder if that 3m bump in 2019 was because of Black Panther?

Or maybe people were just really rooting for Green Book
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Bohemian Rhapsody was a huge crowdpleaser (as bad as it was, it's box office was massive) that got nominated in several categories too and the Academy heavily publicized that they will open with a performance by Queen, likely a combination of factors
 
Blader

Blader

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,604
Cass_Se said:
Bohemian Rhapsody was a huge crowdpleaser (as bad as it was, it's box office was massive) that got nominated in several categories too and the Academy heavily publicized that they will open with a performance by Queen, likely a combination of factors
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Oh good call, forgot about that one.
 
Sasliquid

Sasliquid

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,294
It's not surprising, all awards shows have seen big declines this year and having so far delayed in April probably didn't help.

The Academy needs to find a way to make the show more accessible, probably through some form of streaming format, without becoming an series of adverts. However it's main focus needs to be awarding good films which I think they did a great job of this year.
 
hiredhand

hiredhand

Member
Feb 6, 2019
3,147
Rogue74 said:
They need to show clips of the nominees. If it is for an acting award, highlight some of the performance that is nominated. Visual effects? Show a brief highlight reel of some of the great effects in the film. Etc.
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I agree. Especially in the technical categories (effects, makeup/hairstyling, costumes...), those short clips were sorely missed.
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
93,025
Jeremy said:
Unfortunately, the more that the Oscars do to celebrate diversity the more they do to alienate mass audiences, both because it means picking less popular films and because it means they are being perceived as "too political" by half of the country.
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This assumes diversity is at odds with mass audiences. And diverse offerings are less popular or less than than other stuff that has been or would be nominated.
 
UnderTheKillingSun

UnderTheKillingSun

Banned
Jul 10, 2020
3,598
I fully expect a "Best Main Stream" or "Best Blockbuster" Award within the new 3-5 years and it will be held right before the Best Director and Best Picture awards.
 
Sheepinator

Sheepinator

Member
Jul 25, 2018
27,940
I never watch their awards ceremonies. It's a bunch of very wealthy people hawking their wares, while collecting more freebies they don't need. No thanks.
 
Wyze

Wyze

Member
Nov 15, 2018
3,140
For me covid has nothing to do with it, I just don't care about these awards anymore
 
Fevaweva

Fevaweva

Member
Oct 30, 2017
6,469
It was a muted ceremony but I thought the quality of the nominees was the highest it has been in years.

Plus, looking at who won it seems like the most diverse winners across all categories...maybe ever?

They really need a "Best Stunts" or something like that.
 
Dekuman

Dekuman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,026
Jeremy said:
Unfortunately, the more that the Oscars do to celebrate diversity the more they do to alienate mass audiences, both because it means picking less popular films and because it means they are being perceived as "too political" by half of the country.

Republicans abhor the Oscars these days, and the right's unwillingness to watch the ceremony is probably a big part of the downwards ratings trend over the last 10 years.

Ironically a lot of people are in this thread dancing on the ceremony's grave because they perceive it as elitist.

It's a double-bind, for sure. Not sure how you please both groups...
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They've been picking less popular films for at least a few decades now.

There is not necessarily a conflict between diversity and selecting popular films.

In the 90s popular and acclaimed movies often won. That started to change with Saving Private Ryan's loss to Weimstein's campaign machinations. What was the last really popular movie that won BP? Return of the King?
 
Jeremy

Jeremy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,639
Slayven said:
This assumes diversity is at odds with mass audiences. And diverse offerings are less popular or less than than other stuff that has been or would be nominated.
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40% of Americans are bigots and resent awarding PoC and effectively boycott the Oscars as a result. Really, though, what I wrote assumes that International tastes are not in step with American tastes. When I wrote that the Academy is celebrating diversity I mostly mean in terms of diversity of membership, not in terms of what films are winning or getting nominated.

I am not talking about racial diversity, as that has not been the bulk of the change in Academy membership... Instead most new Academy members in the recent diversity push have come from other countries. It's that internationalization of the Academy membership which probably pushed things like Parasite or The Shape of Water over the top. No Best Picture winner has grossed $100m in the USA since Argo. These increasingly diverse Academy voters are celebrating what they perceive as artistry, even when it results in awarding films that largely have not connected with the American public.

The Academy is getting more esoteric in its choices over the last 10 or so years. I think that this is artistically defensible and it results in a more diverse set of winners, but they are increasingly out of step with mainstream popular tastes and it's taking a toll on the ratings.
 
Jeremy

Jeremy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,639
Dekuman said:
There is not necessarily a conflict between diversity and selecting popular films.
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I could have worded that more clearly... obviously they could have picked Black Panther as Best Picture or something, but the membership wasn't interested in doing that.

Individual voters likely don't care at all about things like TV ratings or diversity and they just vote for what they liked best... and the Academy's push towards diversity in the membership has only resulted in a more international voting body which is probably more out of step with mainstream American tastes.
 
Grym

Grym

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,970
with the a handful of movies made in the last year...and significantly less people seeing them....I'd think they expected this.
 
The Unsent

The Unsent

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,419
UnderTheKillingSun said:
I fully expect a "Best Main Stream" or "Best Blockbuster" Award within the new 3-5 years and it will be held right before the Best Director and Best Picture awards.
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I think they almost did this but pulled the plug, because people thought they were selling out, or it looked it may have been done to shove Black Panther in a 'popular' category and delegitimize it.

Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

As I understand, the awards are 'bought' in a way because of how aggressive the 'for your consideration' campaigns, and sponsored events are, so I found it funny when people were getting defensive about the show losing its integrity or something.
 
bishopp135

bishopp135

Member
Oct 29, 2017
981
Cultural consumption is more fragmented than ever, and the most successful movies right now (superheroes) rarely get nominated. Not only movies compete with more stuff but also movie stars are less powerful while at the same time being more accessible. The audience don't need to watch the Oscars to see pretty people in pretty dresses since Instagram already satisfy that need.
 
werezompire

werezompire

Zeboyd Games
Verified
Oct 26, 2017
11,318
I have a hard time caring. Animated is always won by Pixar/Disney so there's nothing to root for there (BTW, Over the Moon & Wolfwalkers were both excellent and well worth checking out). Everything else is dominated by depressing or edgy dramas, except for the tech awards which usually go to your big blockbusters.

I'd be much more interested in the oscars if they had more genre awards - best action movie, best comedy, best horror, etc.
 
bluehat9

bluehat9

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,383
I'm done with all award shows. No need to watch millionaires laughing it up with each other.
 
SilentSoldier

SilentSoldier

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,450
I think a lot of the movies that were available on streaming services other than Netflix were either there temporarily ( Like Judas and the Black Messiah in HBOMax, which I ended up missing) or behind a paywall. I'm not paying any extra money to watch a movie on a streaming service I already pay for. So that could've been a barrier. Plus every award show had their ratings drastically reduced this year.
 
Smokeymicpot

Smokeymicpot

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,837
Cass_Se said:
Bohemian Rhapsody was a huge crowdpleaser (as bad as it was, it's box office was massive) that got nominated in several categories too and the Academy heavily publicized that they will open with a performance by Queen, likely a combination of factors
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A Star Was Born was also that year which was huge with the Cooper and Lady Gaga performance.
 
Vulcano's Assistant

Vulcano's Assistant

Member
Oct 29, 2017
13,478
As a show it kind of failed, watching you could tell the ratings were going to be abysmal, but the winners were some of the most agreeable choices they have made in recent years. No weird bs ala Greenbook.

However, why do I get the feeling that some replies are sort of using this as vindication to the fact that they didn't watch many of the nominated films? The show may have been terrible, but that doesn't affect the quality of the nominees.
 
Acidote

Acidote

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,962
Let's be honest, there were fantastic movies you've already mentioned but it was at the same time one of the weakest years ever for obvious reasons.

The coming years will probably be strong af.
 
Tavernade

Tavernade

Tavernade
Moderator
Sep 18, 2018
8,617
I'm not surprised. I've watched the Oscars every year for the past twenty years and even I skipped it. I was tired last night and wanted to relax instead (which turned into passing out ten minutes into a podcast).

Of the BP nominations I'd only seen Black Judas and while I'm excited to see Minari and Promising Young Woman at some point, there really wasn't anything I was excited to root for. And it was clearly a weird COVID constrained version, so the chance of there being fun stuff going on was minimal.

If they wanted my attention they pretty much would have only gotten it by nominating Palm Springs for stuff.
 

LFMartins86

Member
Nov 7, 2017
2,177
I think the fact most of the big movies are dramas also has to do with it the fact not many people watched most of the nominees.
It's been a bummer of a year, people will prefer more light hearted things.
It's no wonder that G vs K and MK were the biggest box office hits in a while, people want to escape reality and just watch silly things.
 
I KILL PXLS

I KILL PXLS

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,520
I didn't even know it was on until I loaded up HULU and it was on the Live front page. It had been on for half an hour by then.
 
Surakian

Surakian

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
10,816
1) There was no host
2) No free streaming option for us without cable or a subscription service that had it available
3) Didn't even know it was on
4) Tired of watching a bunch of rich people have a circle-jerk over their films
 
ThatCrazyGuy

ThatCrazyGuy

Member
Nov 27, 2017
9,846
I don't know anybody who watches any award shows, to be honest.

I think I watched the Oscars last when Saving Private Ryan didn't win.

I've never thought these types of things to be a entertaining use of my time. I'll just look up the winners later.
 
UnderTheKillingSun

UnderTheKillingSun

Banned
Jul 10, 2020
3,598
The Unsent said:
I think they almost did this but pulled the plug, because people thought they were selling out, or it looked it may have been done to shove Black Panther in a 'popular' category and delegitimize it.

Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

As I understand, the awards are 'bought' in a way because of how aggressive the 'for your consideration' campaigns, and sponsored events are, so I found it funny when people were getting defensive about the show losing its integrity or something.
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Yeah that's probably coming back.
 
alpha

alpha

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,996
That's a hell of a drop. And being 100% honest and not just saying it to sound hipster, I legit didn't even know the Oscars were on last night.

I guess because I don't watch much traditional TV these days, if I am watching TV it's YouTube TV which has its own ads.
 
dhlt25

dhlt25

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,814
Yea this whole year was a doozie for the industry so it's understandable that people weren't that excited
 
PlatypusDude

PlatypusDude

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,141
Not shocking. Aside from typical decline over last few years everyone has been in a form of cultural stasis for the last year+ in regards to things like movies.

Also think this might be evidence that any switching to streaming and similar would likely hurt smaller fare that is typical of the Oscars more than anything.
 
Ithil

Ithil

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,366
Sasliquid said:
That's more advertising platform than Awards show.

(Also that is total viewers compared to the 9.8m oscar average for something that was freely watchable online)
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That's the point. It's accessible. The Oscars is on one channel and watching it on a stream is very difficult and fiddly. They need to evolve on that front.
 
Alexandros

Alexandros

Member
Oct 26, 2017
17,800
werezompire said:
I have a hard time caring. Animated is always won by Pixar/Disney so there's nothing to root for there (BTW, Over the Moon & Wolfwalkers were both excellent and well worth checking out). Everything else is dominated by depressing or edgy dramas, except for the tech awards which usually go to your big blockbusters.

I'd be much more interested in the oscars if they had more genre awards - best action movie, best comedy, best horror, etc.
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I would like that too. It is ridiculous that only a very specific type of film has a chance of winning an award.
 
Sasliquid

Sasliquid

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,294
Ithil said:
That's the point. It's accessible. The Oscars is on one channel and watching it on a stream is very difficult and fiddly. They need to evolve on that front.
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I definitely agree on that. Given it's shown by ABC I'm surprised it wasn't on Disney plus (it wasn't right? I'm in the UK).

My fear is in a desperate need for views it swings the way of VGAs, where it's more commercials than celebrating art.

The decline has been steady but I do think people are under estimating the psychological impact of COVID. Last decline this big was just after the beginning of the Iraq war and that had no direct correlation with the industry.
 
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