the oscars and emmys are the two oldest
entertainment awards ceremonies that
made their broadcasting debut to
millions of tvs in the 1950s
from the glamour of celebrities rolling
down the red carpet to the speeches to
the surprising winners award shows
attracted massive attention throughout
the decades the academy of motion
picture arts and sciences presents its
annual awards for film merit it's a
yearly celebration for hollywood both
the oscars and emmys have had a strong
hold on the entertainment award show
zeitgeist through much of the late 80s
and 90s but as of late viewership for
award shows have been on a steady
decline the oscar saw an 81.2 percent
drop from its peak viewership from 1998
to 2021. as for the emmys they saw an
80.6 drop from its peak viewership in
1986 to 2021 but it's not just the
number of people who are not tuning into
these shows it's also who's actually
turning up to watch
viewership for both the oscars and emmys
have become much older as the last
year's oscars pointed out that
advertisers target age demographic of 18
and 49 year olds are fading away
drastically each year i think they have
to address
multiple problems on multiple fronts you
know what i mean again this is this is
a brand new world in terms of how we
receive all of our content and yet the
award show format has not changed in
over 50 years
on top of the steady decline in ratings
the prestigious hollywood events have
also been hit with controversies and
protests that jeopardizes award shows as
we've come to know them however the
oscars and emmys play a vital part for
the film and television industry
collectively studios have spent an
estimated 100 million dollars each year
for four year consideration campaigns to
land nominations for their movies or
shows
you got to make money so at the end of
the day you're in the entertainment
business and you're going to mostly
program things that are going to get
eyeballs sell tickets sell subscriptions
and so on and so forth that does not
mean that every studio and every
streamer doesn't want to win awards
so what happened to award shows that
turned him into must-watch nights to
missable tv for audiences how will the
drop in viewership and bad press affect
ad spending or the industry's
multi-million dollar four-year
consideration campaigns
nearly a century ago the academy of
motion pictures and sciences presented
the first ever academy awards in 1929
most commonly known as the oscars
back then the oscars looked a bit
different it was a private event at the
roosevelt hotel in los angeles with 270
of hollywood's who's who in attendance
with the winners being announced via
newspaper the next day
the oscars would not be televised for
almost 25 years but as films were the
most common form of entertainment during
the 20s through 40s television was on
the rise in 1949 the academy of
television arts and sciences created the
emmy awards from 1953 to the early 2000s
both the oscars and emmys were viewed as
must-watch television as both took over
tens of millions of household
televisions memorable can't miss moments
happened every year from famous
headliners hosting to controversial
moments and unexpected films and tv
shows taking home the night's biggest
prizes through the mid-80s to early
2000s the oscars and emmys had both
healthy growth and stable viewership
almost annually
in 1986 the emmys had its best year ever
with 35.8 million viewers tuning in
while the oscar's best year was in 1998
with 55.2 million viewers ad spending
for both award shows became just as
significant as events like the super
bowl and for good reason as they were
the two biggest nights in entertainment
that weren't sports related
from 2001 to 2010 the average cost of a
30-second spot was an estimated 1.48
million dollars for the oscars with an
average annual viewership of 39.3
million viewers
and during that span the oscars
generated 720 million dollars from 30
second ad spots alone
over the years award shows have been a
valuable metric to tip the scales for
potential audiences to see a film in
theaters or tune into a tv show
landing a nomination is advantageous for
studios and the talent around hollywood
as it can mean significant returns for
their bottom lines even if you look now
in any kind of movie that they advertise
on television if that that actor has
been nominated for an academy award
they're going to let you know
in any trailer you know any kind of
advertisement
you know getting nominated i think you
know it certainly matters to the actors
and the actresses and to the talent the
directors even the cinematographers
their rates go up the amount of quality
material that comes on their plate you
know goes way higher the amount of
options they have go you know goes much
higher as well
for the studio or the production company
certainly you get a bump of course again
that paradigm has changed you know for
hulu or you know even for amazon with
like manchester by the sea or you know
some of these other films that they kind
of went in on it's it's subs right they
want to make sure that they can get subs
out of it in 2019 the last time films
were released theatrically before the
pandemic movie saw an increase in ticket
sales after their best picture
nomination announcement 1917 saw a 63
increase little women saw 21
parasite 18
jojo rabbit 15
ford versus ferrari at 3 percent once
upon a time in hollywood with 0.5
and joker with 0.2 percent four-year
consideration campaigns are run almost
like yearly political campaigns many
marketing narratives surrounding a show
movie or actor are created a drum of
hype and recognition so for your
consideration campaigns are basically
you know coordinated airstrikes to get
to get your movie in front of voting
bodies for awards um they're quite
expensive they take a long time um but
they have proven to be incredibly
successful um and increasing visibility
uh and getting traction for smaller
films maybe let's say let's let's
commercial films um
and uh yeah i mean it's sort of its own
micro economy here in hollywood the
price of trying to land a nomination
varies from studio to studio
smaller more independent studios that
green light film or tv series may only
have a certain amount of cash flow
willing to spend on a campaign
strategists or consultants would then
establish a narrative archetype such as
the underdog to help push these smaller
projects to the top of nomination
contention
it's a more grassroots style of
campaigning with a limited budget but
sometimes it does in fact work
then there are studios with giant deep
pockets
enough to afford running campaigns
ranging from three hundred thousand
dollars to ten million dollars to run
effective creative marketing campaigns
to generate a nomination you know it
costs a lot of money
from billboards to bus side print ads to
printing dvds and paying for digital
streaming access
you know all the way down to paying for
stylists and wardrobe and hair people
for your movie stars to do photo calls
endless amounts of q and a's
streaming giant netflix spend an
estimated 60 million dollars on a single
four-year consideration campaign for the
film roma back in 2018 but it's unclear
whether these nominations will still
have a big effect on box office sales tv
ratings or subscribers if viewers aren't
paying attention to award shows anymore
both the oscars and emmys are the two
oldest award shows in entertainment and
had a strong hold on american television
since their inception from 2000 to 2010
the oscars viewership did not see much
growth as its best year was in 2000 with
46.3 million viewers tuning in yet
viewership did flutter from its 10-year
low of 32 million viewers back to 41.7
million viewers from 2008 to 2010.
during the same 10-year period the emmy
saw declining viewership starting with
21.8 million viewers to 13.5 million
viewers
yet both award shows saw their numbers
drastically take a turn for the worse
the oscar saw its viewership from 2011
go from 37.9 million viewers tuning in
to just 10.4 million viewers in 2021
as for the emmys they went from 12.4
million viewers in 2011 to just 7.8
million viewers in 2021 both historic
lows for the storied award shows so what
exactly started this decline
for one award shows have been hit with a
barrage of bad press from aging industry
standards and practices that have not
progressed over the years from a lack of
diverse voices at the helm of studios
and the award members
movements such as oscar so white
launched in 2015 sparked a much needed
conversation about the lack of diversity
for film's highest honor where diverse
voices and faces are underrepresented
both in front and behind the camera
and while initially beginning in 2006 by
founder tarana burke the metoo movement
was on the world stage 11 years later as
sexual assault allegations from
influential players in hollywood
sparked a push for justice and gender
equity but it's not just the academy
awards nor emmys marred by controversy
in 2021 the golden globes came under
intense scrutiny for both lack of
diverse voices in its 87-member
hollywood foreign press association and
allegations of lapses in journalistic
ethics in its nomination process they've
run into trouble with the amount of
money that campaigners spend in wooing
them flying around the world for set
visits uh you know whining and dining
them as uh hollywood notorious it does
during awards season um but more than
that i think very recently we learned um
that you know they had not one black
member in their body which was you know
kind of just unthinkable um in in
today's hollywood
and and also had just been facing this
legacy erosion with their business
practices
nbc universal the parent company of cnbc
signed a six-year nearly 60 million
dollars per year deal with the golden
globes in 2018 but terminated that
contract in 2021 in 2022 the golden
globes went untelevised with past
winners returning their awards i think
any award show lives and dies by the
talent that support it and to have a
truly global star like tom cruise and
don't forget that this is the hollywood
farm press we're talking about you know
outwardly reject
um
you know his previous trophies uh in the
face of all their controversy is a
massive wake-up call because if they
don't have the support of the artists i
don't know what that organization or
that show looks like moving forward
another area where award shows are
taking a hit is actually who's tuning
into these shows cord cutting has seen
demographics from 18 to 29 and 30 to 49
forgo traditional methods of getting
live television and 61 of 18 to 29 year
olds don't use cable or satellite tv at
all instead they turn to streaming
services
because of this tv viewership these days
are skewing much older just take the
oscars still the biggest award show in
terms of viewership it's all the key
target demographic for advertisers in
the age range of 18 to 35 and 36 to 49
dropped significantly with 60 fewer
people tuning in
and more and more viewers are streaming
their content rather than tuning into
live events according to pew research 91
of people who do not have traditional
cable or satellite subscriptions say
they do not use cable or satellite
because they know that they can access
the content they want online instead
however the question remains is the way
that nielsen measures its ratings a bit
outdated these award shows have seen
growth in the digital space with social
media audiences
sites like youtube and twitter have seen
millions of impressions and interactions
as these award shows are happening live
as many younger viewers maybe in fact
watching outside the traditional live
broadcast that nielsen measures for
especially with twitter where a lot of
times moments from these shows are trend
individually
they are completely edited down chopped
and served up to you you can probably
watch the entire academy awards over the
series the four or five tweets really to
get what highlights are and then read an
article about the you know list of big
winners the bottom line is there are
certain things that are out of your
control you know the proliferation of of
how we get our entertainment and where
we can get our entertainment of course
continues to grow seemingly by the hour
so you know to be able to be on your
phone and a couple clicks couple of
swipes to get to what you want and the
type of entertainment you want that's
that's certainly one issue
in order to combat the loss of
viewership with younger audiences
the oscars in 2009 expanded their best
picture category from 5 to 10 to garner
more viewership as blockbuster films
such as avatar were nominated
historically most movies nominated for
best picture do not have much of a broad
audience base
and an overwhelmingly number of these
films do not make their budgets back you
look at a film like no man land this is
a film that was made on a very low
budget gross two and a half to three
million
they probably put you know a good
million million half if not more than
you know what the film grossed into the
four-year consideration campaign in 2019
the academy awards was reported to
create a new category specifically for
blockbuster films and would see films
like black panther move from best
picture
to a new most popular film category for
that year the academy introducing a
popular most popular film clearly that
backfired on them and thankfully they
abandoned it as quickly as they
introduced it but you know i think i i
understand why they did it you know
they're trying to get that younger
audience in the idea of
just making it a popular vote really you
know it's almost condescending and it's
condescending to the filmmakers quite
frankly it's condescending to the
producers the actors and everybody that
worked on the film you know you want to
be you want to have the film to have
merit and that doesn't mean that a
popcorn film can't have merit but if
you're going to put it within the
parameters the best picture as it's been
sort of defined for the last you know
nearly 100 years then we have to look at
it through that lens the other issue
with the oscars and emmys may be
fatigued from so many other award shows
from the grammys to vmas to the people's
choice awards the game awards and much
much more
since 2011 the grammys have seen the
same decline in interest as both the
oscars and emmys
hitting all-time lows in 2021 but for
now award shows continue to reshape and
retool their now antiquated formatting
for more inclusive and diverse systems
in 2020 both the emmys and oscars
announced new criteria for films and
television shows that must be met to be
nominated in february of 2022 the oscars
announced the show would not go hostless
for the first time since 2018 and it
would be the first oscars in history to
have all three hosts be women and to
help drum up younger audiences the
academy also announced a twitter fan
vote for film goer's favorite film of
2021 to be recognized during the show
however in its attempt to streamline its
broadcast the oscars announced that it
would cut 8 awards from its live show
an announcement met with intense
backlash from fans and top industry
talent both organizations behind the
award shows have mentioned equitable
hiring practices and representation on
and off screen to reflect the diverse
film community but is any incremental
change that award shows make enough for
them to have a real shot of having a
future certainly they could bring a
younger contingent to the people that
are presenting awards you know
potentially the hosts and and how they
how the show is uh put together for sure
there has long been a future that has
been feared in hollywood i would say at
least over the past five years that
we're approaching this complete
dissolution of verticals between film
television gaming
advertorial fat you know all these
things are sort of converging at the
same time
and
when you have an award show like the
oscars that's exclusive to film right
and we talked earlier about how the
changing definition of that can alienate
some people uh oddly enough i think the
best position towards show at the moment
is the golden globes despite their
horrendous internal problems um
celebrating film and tv at the same time
i think is a really wide net to cast it
gets a lot of people excited but it's
about having those maybe sort of old
world thoughts about what constitutes a
movie it really does sort of turn off a
massive potential audience