Record-low viewership is mainly a given, however how low can April 25 ABC telecast go?
Yeah, final month’s disastrously rated Golden Globes telecast was no fluke. And we at the moment are on the level the place every of the opposite main awards reveals have sunk to record-low numbers of their respective pandemic-dampened outings.
The Oscars have been already set a file low final 12 months. Buckle up.
Sunday’s Grammys mainly halved the annual CBS present’s earlier record-low viewers (16.999 million whole viewers again in 2006). The primetime particular, emceed by “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah, dropped 61% to a 2.1 ranking amongst adults 18-49.
Two weeks prior, NBC’s 2021 Golden Globes shed 63% of whole viewers from 2020, plummeting from 18.Four million general TV viewers to a mere 6.9 million. The particular’s 1.Four ranking in the important thing demo was down 68% from 2020’s 4.7.
And final September, the 72nd Emmy Awards on ABC drew 6.1 million whole viewers and a 1.three ranking amongst adults 18-49. Both have been new all-time lows.
Last 12 months’s Oscars on ABC managed a 5.three ranking and 23.6 million whole viewers. Those have been each file lows, and that reside celebration of movie occurred earlier than COVID-19 interfered with U.S. telecasts — or the standard launch of films in theaters.
What’s worse is that every of the 4 main annual awards reveals have gotten progressively extra regular and fewer digital. The Grammy Awards have been mainly totally reside, with nominees and winners gathered at socially distanced tables on the Los Angeles Convention Center — and performers doing totally choreographed routines in huge, open areas. Plus, critics usually appeared to benefit from the “Music’s Biggest Night” 2021 telecast (nicely, not everybody) — a sense not mirrored in Nielsen’s measurements.
All of this doesn’t bode nicely for the April 25 Academy Awards on ABC.
The Academy introduced on Monday that the present will happen at its typical Dolby Theater and likewise Los Angeles’ Union Station — a extra open venue that may allow extra social distancing. And in an electronic mail to AMPAS membership, Academy President David Rubin stated attendance shall be restricted to presenters, nominees and their company.
It’s nonetheless unclear whether or not the present could have a number.
One different supply of hope for the Oscars: The producers embody Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher and “Ocean’s Eleven” director Steven Soderbergh, who led a Directors Guild committee on restarting manufacturing with social distancing pointers and should have just a few methods up his sleeve.
But the present arguably already has an uphill battle happening all the best way in late April after final 12 months awards season was all wrapped up by February 9.
“Every Oscar producer gets a chance to remake the show as they see fit. Lynette and I sought to create a theatrical experience with lots of music that would feel entertaining not only to the folks in the room but to viewers at home,” Stephanie Allain Bray, who co-produced final 12 months’s ceremony, informed TheWrap.
“A big part of the success of any Oscars show is the production team who returns every year. Glenn Weiss, Rob Paine, Bob Dickinson, Rickey Minor, Raj Kapoor, Taryn Hurd and a myriad of others create a solid foundation for the producers to make their own stamp,” Bray continued. “I’m sure that Steven, Stacey and Jesse will knock it out of the park by bringing their own groove to it especially during these unconventional times. Necessity is the mother of invention.”
The Academy Awards are usually thought of the second most-watched primetime telecast of the 12 months, yearly. Though there will be semantics-level arguments made for or in opposition to that title, the excellence may be very a lot at risk this 12 months.
Even with out the worst international pandemic in a century, common TV rankings tendencies have dragged down the viewership of each common and particular programming. Audiences have turn out to be extra fragmented throughout a rising variety of streaming companies and other ways to devour leisure.
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