Did you watch the Academy Awards last night? If you said “yes” you’re probably a lying dog-faced pony soldier because nobody watched it. Literally nobody. Sunday’s broadcast of the Oscars was the lowest rated in history. So few people tuned in that Neilsen Ratings probably mistook it for a show on CNN. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say maybe people are tired of getting lectured by overprivileged celebrities on social and political issues. The whole point of movies is to briefly escape that noise.
Here’s The Hollywood Reporter with the sad news:
ABC’s Oscar telecast reached all-time lows in the ratings, falling sharply from last year.
The three-hour-plus kudocast averaged about 23.6 million viewers and a 5.3 rating among adults 18-49, well below the 29.56 million and 7.7 for 2019’s awards ceremony — which aired two weeks later in the year. The Oscars were down 20 percent year-over-year in viewers and 31 percent in the key ad-sales demo of adults 18-49.
Sunday’s awards show also falls well short of previous ratings lows for the Oscars, set in 2018. That year the telecast averaged 26.54 million viewers and a 6.8 rating in the demo; Sunday was down 11 percent in viewers and 22 percent in adults 18-49 from prior lows.
You don’t have to be an expert in analyzing ratings percentages to understand that the Oscars crapped out big time.
Weirdly enough, it wasn’t really that political of a show compared to previous years in the Age of Trump. Brad Pitt threw in a thing about the democrats’ failed impeachment/coup effort:
“They told me that I only have 45 seconds up here which is 45 seconds more than the Senate gave John Bolton this week,” said Pitt as he accepted his award for playing a dumb guy.
Then there was the skinhead director of a documentary produced by the Obamas, who directly quoted The Communist Manifesto:
Julia Reichert at the #Oscars quotes the Communist Manifesto: Working people have it harder and harder these days and we believe that things will get better when workers of the world unite. pic.twitter.com/Et84R60ffr
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) February 10, 2020
And Joaquin Phoenix was super-pissed about cow insemination:
“We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and then steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable,” said Phoenix.
But that was about it on the political scolding. Perhaps if Robert Di Niro won for the Irishman he would dropped some F-bombs on President Trump but he went home empty-handed.
Besides the celebrity lecture fatigue, perhaps people are tuning out of the Oscars because they insist upon nominating movies nobody has seen or even heard of. If all or most of the nominees are from box office flops, how good could they be? And why would average people give a shit if they win or not?
Next year the Academy should only nominate films that have explosions and/or boobies, female boobies, plus get an actual host. And not some preachy liberal Hollywood douche, but someone who people want to see.
The good news is that Hollywood is back to being the world leader in white supremacy. Only one black person was nominated for anything and she didn’t win. So diverse. So inclusive. So progressive.
