The pandemic has changed TV viewing patterns and awards shows are suffering

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Think about it. How have your own TV habits changed in the past year? What are you looking at more, less at and how? The answers largely explain the record-low ratings for award ceremonies, Sunday’s most recent Grammys on CBS. The broadcast “averaged a record 8.8 million viewers on Sundays,” wrote USA Today’s Gary Levin. “That’s 53% lower than 18.7 million for last year’s broadcast on January 26,” before the pandemic.

CBS said the Grammys were still “the biggest audience for an awards show this season” – but that’s because the Emmy Awards fell to a meager 6.1 million in September and the Golden Globes averaged just 6.9 million last month. So let’s unpack the reasons for this …

The Grammys fell freely in the ratings despite a broadcast that critics praised for its inventiveness and energy. But where some saw a well-produced event, others saw a desperate appeal to young people unsuitable for the older TV broadcast demos. The bigger problem is that there is a great fragmentation going on – a loss of common experiences, be it in the cinema or on broadcast or, to some extent, in music.

Here’s Brian Lowry with analysis: “The fallout from Covid-19 — and the impact on these live events — has hastened a host of problems. An obvious problem in the industry is fragmentation. runner and the unpredictability. of live acceptance speeches to a large audience, why not just wait and watch the clips of something interesting that happens next? “

Lowry adds, “Even the Super Bowl wasn’t completely immune to these forces, which makes me wonder, How far is this massive drop-off not a one-time blip, but the new normal? ripple effect on the organizations behind them that depend on that TV revenue. “

Why this matters

Elaborating on Lowry’s point, “ While the decline of a few Hollywood galas congratulating themselves may seem trivial in the grand scheme of things, especially during a pandemic, these shows employ thousands of employees, and the groups that deploy them. “Use the profits to fund programs for the arts,” wrote Lucas Shaw of Bloomberg. “TV channels pay tens of millions of dollars for the rights to broadcast individual awards ceremonies because they are part of an exclusive club: programming that must be seen live. In any given year, the Oscars and Grammys are among the only shows that can compete. with live sports for viewers. “

Speaking of the Oscars …

Lisa Respers France writes: “The Academy Award nominations were announced Monday morning and it was a good day for diversity. Seventy women received a total of 76 nominations, a record for a given year. Two women, Emerald Fennell and Chloé Zhao, were nominated. in the directing category for the first time in the same year. Zhao is the first woman of color to be nominated in the category. “

>> Filmmakers love movies about the movies, and Netflix’s “Mank”, about making the “Citizen Kane” scenario, led the pack by 10 kinks …

>> Also noteworthy, from Lisa’s story: “Three Black men, Leslie Odom Jr. for ‘One Night in Miami’ and Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield for ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’, were all nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category. .. “

Decreased expectations for Oscar ratings

Brian Lowry writes, “The Grammys ratings reached just hours after the Oscars nods rolled out. As the NYT’s Brooks Barnes tweeted, if the Oscars broadcast goes down like the Grammys and Globes, ABC could be watching ‘a audience of about 10 million, “an unthinkable number as recently as a few years ago. For now, my advice to the Oscar producers and ABC would be to accept diminished expectations, and in a year when streaming is the primary means of delivering content – witness Netflix’s record 35 nominations — going with the flow and hoping for the best. “

Read Lowry’s full column here …

These trend lines go back ten years

In so many areas of American life, the pandemic is accelerating trends that already existed. In TV “the pandemic has accelerated the exodus of linearly,” “viewing guru Joe Adalian of Vulture wrote MondayAs Jack Sussman, CBS’s executive VP of specials and live events, told the LA Times before the show, “The awards show hurts like most linear television broadcasts. Notably, in that same piece, Grammy’s exec producer Ben Winston acknowledged. writing on the wall and predicted a drop of 30 to 60%.

So let’s zoom out. Think how much has changed in the last decade: the growth of on-demand content libraries, the habituation to ad-free viewing, the ubiquity of celebrities on social media, the ability to catch the best parts of live events later, the stickiness of always active social feeds. One of the logical results: starred live events are no longer must-see TV. As a wise TV director said to me, “Awards are based on a common definition of pop culture and that idea has been eroding for years.”

However, Oprah Winfrey’s recent interview is a compelling counter-argument. Interest in the Meghan and Harry interview was tied to the royal family’s drama and curiosity about what she would say …

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