Award shows connect viewers with their favorite celebrities and media productions, and they honor the amazing work from movies to music to short films and everything in between. Like most televised productions, award shows lead to viewers expressing their opinions and level of satisfaction.
Award season stretches from around October to March and includes ceremonies such as The People’s Choice Awards, Country Music Association Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Academy Awards and Grammy Awards. Award shows like these get a lot of attention not only because of the importance of the awards, but also from the celebrities who attend the ceremonies.
At the beginning of this year, award show viewers were given some of the biggest and most well-known shows, such as the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards, in the first few weeks of the year. The Emmys were supposed to air in September, but due to the actors’ and writers’ strikes, it was postponed.
According to the staff from USA Today, “The new January date put TV’s biggest awards in the thick of a crowded trophy season, and against stiff competition for viewers.”
Both the Critics’ Choice Awards and the Golden Globe Awards took place a few days earlier and featured many of the same productions and nominees.
Not only were the Emmys fighting for viewers with other award shows, they were also competing with two NFL playoff games and coverage of the Iowa caucuses. According to the official NFL website, this year’s playoffs were the most viewed in recorded history, with records dating back to 1988.
Award show viewership has declined for more reasons than stiff com- petition. The lack of attention span in today’s younger viewers has also contributed to the decline in viewership.
According to senior writer for CNN Media and Entertainment Brian Lowry, “These days, younger audiences don’t have the same award-viewing habits and seem content to catch clips of highlights as opposed to sitting through a three-hour-plus presentation.”
While the length of award shows may not be appealing to younger audiences, they also don’t always utilize advertisements showcasing the award shows on platforms dominated by the younger audience.
“I never know when they’re on, so I don’t ever know when to watch them,” junior Lauren Babka said.
If someone misses an awards ceremony, they still have a chance to catch the most interesting parts on social media. For example, at this year’s Golden Globe Awards, host Jo Koy went viral for questionable jokes he made while hosting. Clips of Koy making a joke about singer Taylor Swift’s attendance at NFL football games and him completely missing the point of the Barbie movie went viral on social media.
“I heard about [the host] on TikTok, and I saw people complaining about it. The host was terrible, and his jokes were just bad,” Babka said.
Since people know they will hear about anything important via social media the next day, it eliminates the fear of missing out on all the inside jokes from the people who watched it live. This wasn’t the only incident where an award show was negatively impacted by those involved. During the Academy Awards in 2019, Kevin Hart was supposed to host the Oscars when past homophobic tweets resurfaced. He decided not to host after the tweets came out, and the Oscars were hostless that year.
An award show moment that is still talked about today is the clip of Kanye West walking up during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech during the 2009 Video Music Awards. Swift won Best Video by a Female Artist that year, and during her speech, West famously said, “I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.”
Although this happened 15 years ago when viewership was up, the moment never went away, which gives people the impression that they can miss an award show and still know everything that happened. Incidents like these can shape people’s perceptions of all award shows and those involved.
“I think the hosts are getting a [bad reputation],” Babka said. “No one really wants to be [associated with hosting] because of all the bad things that have already happened.”
In contrast, however, Babka also thinks “awards shows themselves are still positive.” They can continue to honor the pieces of work that deserve it, and they can showcase the best talent in the industry.
