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Oscars Ratings Fall to All-Time Low
I didn’t watch the Oscars last night. Apparently, most Americans joined me. The final ratings are in for the 2018 Academy Awards and it ain’t pretty.
Jimmy Kimmel earned appalling ratings when he hosted the event in 2017, but this year’s broadcast dropped 19 percent from that to a paltry 26.5 million viewers. This makes it the least-watched Oscars in history. The previous record-holder was in 2008; last night’s entry garnered 5 million fewer viewers than that bomb.
Trying to put a shine on it, The Hollywood Reporter said the bad ratings were no big deal since they were totes expected:
[T]he writing was largely on the wall for lows, either way. All three marquee events of the U.S. TV calendar thus far — the Golden Globe Awards, the Grammys and the Super Bowl — were off significantly from the 2017.
At three hours and 50 minutes, Sunday’s Oscars may have only passed last year’s runtime by one minute, but it managed to rank as the longest telecast in over a decade. Not since 2007 has an Academy Awards ceremony lasted that long.
During the broadcast, I set down my book to check Twitter a few times. My timeline was filled with people complaining about the pretense, preaching, and politics. Which made me wonder, “why are you watching it in the first place?”
It was obvious that after a year of sexual scandals, Hollywood would do its best to shift their well-deserved blame to their favorite scapegoat, middle America. Perhaps next year, the film industry will admit their failings and actually try to court their would-be customers instead of bashing them.
Oh, who am I kidding?
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Published in Entertainment
Argh! My grammar-nazi subroutine is triggered by this microaggression!
I think their customers are each other.
Can you imagine the outrage if Black Panther doesn’t win next year?
I liked the movie, but thought the ending was way off.
They have almost a whole year to come up with a movie that pushes even more SJW buttons than Black Panther.
I’ll add one other cause I think may contribute to the ratings decline: film has declined in importance, with the rise of the hour-long television drama, video games, and all of the content streaming over the internet. Films just aren’t as culturally important as they were several years ago.
Also, the films that people turn out to see aren’t sophisticated enough for the Oscars. How many films have mass appeal these days, that aren’t Star Wars, or comic book movies?
Remember? Heck, except for King’s Speech (which was good) and Birdman (which I didn’t see, but am mildly interested in) I hadn’t even heard of most of them until they were nominated.
Hollywood insularity and leftism probably isn’t helping, but the horrible quality of the movies is probably equally to blame. The most watched (in raw numbers) awards show since 1974 was the 70th, in 1998. This is, probably not coincidentally, the last show I watched. Billy Crystal hosted, and the best picture nominations were Titanic, As Good as it Gets, The Full Monty, Good Will Hunting, and LA Confidential. Titanic made massive bank, The Full Monty would spur an entire subgenre and numerous spinoffs, LA Confidential launched the career of Guy Pierce and to a lesser extent Russell Crowe, Good Will Hunting introduced America to dramatic Robin Williams and the Damon/Afflack directing and acting juggernaut.
Other movies that year with lasting influence include Boogie Nights, Starship Troopers, and Wag the Dog.
And despite the high quality of the films, you know what I remember most about it? The jokes the various actors made about each other and themselves. Billy Crystal gently mocking the long speeches and the pretentiousness of the business.
Bob Hope was long remembered as the greatest Oscars host, and much of it came because -having never won an Oscar -much of his humor consisted of feigned sour grapes which ever so slightly, but oh so importantly, deflated the egos on the stage.
The problem of the Oscars -and maybe it really just dates back to James Cameron in 1998 ending with “I’m king of the world!” is that it has become so serious that there’s no fun in the celebration. They’ve disappeared up their own hindquarters.
I was actually surprised that Wonder Woman wasn’t at least nominated. Not only was it a “breakthrough” movie for women, but it was actually a pretty good movie. Misogynists!
Probably the transgender version titled “Black Pantyhose.”
Being a newer form, films are a bit behind the curve, but they’re falling into the same trap as other forms of art; a new generation of creators has arisen who would rather their work be “appreciated” than enjoyed. Never in human history has the divide between art and entertainment been so stark.
You say that like it’s a good thing.
My favorite line from Jimmy “ignorant hypocrite bully” Kimmel was this, about the Oscar statue:
“Never says a rude word and most importantly, no penis at all. He is literally a statue of limitations. And that’s the kind of men we need more of in this town.”
Hey, there, Jimmy-Boy, why don’t you start by becoming one of “the kind of men we need more of in this town?” It’s an easy procedure; I’ll even lend you my knife.
“Never says a rude word” may be a bit harder.
Has to be. Kimmel’s quip about the movie “Call me by your Name” is actually a really stupid joke. He makes two points: it doesn’t make money and it is made to upset Mike Pence.
It doesn’t make money: no one else liked it either.
Made to upset Mike Pence: I doubt Pence saw it, so it was a big effort that failed.
So a movie was made, costing more money than it took in, to upset the VP of the US, and there isn’t a law he had to watch it.
And many people hold the same principles that Mike Pence does. Those people (me) hear Mr. Kimmel’s statement as, “yes the movie industry is trying to upset YOU.” So why should we go to or care about the movies they make?