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Oscar viewership drops 4% from last year; hits 9 year low

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They need to revamp the categories and add a few for popularity. Best action scene, best kiss or romantic moment, best villain, etc. Drop some of the technical categories from the telecast and move them to whatever night they do the stuff no one cares about (sorry best makeup, etc).

I know thats probably a hugely unpopular opinion here but really just haven't cared about any of the major oscar categories or noms in the past few years.

They should also try to get the run time down to 90 minutes with commercials, just brutally eliminate any categories from the telecast that aren't popular - best animated short, best docu short, best docu feature, best live action short etc don't belong on the main telecast.

So rename the MTV Movie Awards "Academy Awards" and eliminate the Academy Awards then.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
I think that it's not a content problem -- it's a format problem. Who the fuck wants to watch an 87 hour telecast filled with commercials just to hear rich people thank their rich managers? Awards telecasts are deeply, deeply bad and a stupendous waste of time. Anyone interested in the content can get both the results and the notable happenings a few hours later on a highlight reel. Now add in a generation of people who don't ever deal with commercials or watch anything live, and further for whom famous means YouTube star, and I think you have a product well past its prime.
 

Cyan

Banned
Start giving them to Star Wars and comic book movies. Edit: ^ oh good idea! Start giving them to Youtube stars as well.
 
Shame. Thought this year was the best crop of movies since 2013.

Unfortunately outside of La La Land, none of the other movies had wide appeal
 

Slayven

Member
I think that it's not a content problem -- it's a format problem. Who the fuck wants to watch an 87 hour telecast filled with commercials just to hear rich people thank their rich managers? Awards telecasts are deeply, deeply bad and a stupendous waste of time. Anyone interested in the content can get both the results and the notable happenings a few hours later on a highlight reel. Now add in a generation of people who don't ever deal with commercials or watch anything live, and further for whom famous means YouTube star, and I think you have a product well past its prime.

Pretty much.
 
I think that it's not a content problem -- it's a format problem. Who the fuck wants to watch an 87 hour telecast filled with commercials just to hear rich people thank their rich managers? Awards telecasts are deeply, deeply bad and a stupendous waste of time. Anyone interested in the content can get both the results and the notable happenings a few hours later on a highlight reel. Now add in a generation of people who don't ever deal with commercials or watch anything live, and further for whom famous means YouTube star, and I think you have a product well past its prime.

This was my impression. A 4% drop isn't time to panic, it's inevitable.

You want to know how many people are ACTUALLY watching something you need to look at DVRs and streaming options over the next day or two. Live viewing stats are worthless.
 
No wants to see a bunch of Hollywood elites pat themselves on the back at how well they pretended to be other people in movies no one saw.

Ding ding ding!

But wait they're "the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life" according to one of those completely out of touch dipshits. Lolz.
 
This was my impression. A 4% drop isn't time to panic, it's inevitable.

You want to know how many people are ACTUALLY watching something you need to look at DVRs and streaming options over the next day or two. Live viewing stats are worthless.

Do people DVR award shows? Seems easier to watch a highlight reel online.
 

Averon

Member
Who wants to waste an evening watching the rich and privileged pat each other on the back? People got better things to do.
 
I think that it's not a content problem -- it's a format problem. Who the fuck wants to watch an 87 hour telecast filled with commercials just to hear rich people thank their rich managers? Awards telecasts are deeply, deeply bad and a stupendous waste of time. Anyone interested in the content can get both the results and the notable happenings a few hours later on a highlight reel. Now add in a generation of people who don't ever deal with commercials or watch anything live, and further for whom famous means YouTube star, and I think you have a product well past its prime.
I agree with most of this, but I think the popularity of the BP nominees does matter somewhat. The only shows in the last 10 years to break 40 million viewers had $250M+ grossing films up for BP, and the highest rated event was when Gravity was in virtual dead heat with 12 Years for BP. Edit: just to be clear, this is in regards to domestic grosses.

The highest viewership ever was the year of Titanic.
 

WaffleTaco

Wants to outlaw technological innovation.
Well maybe they have made it available to stream! Seriously what the fuck Oscars it's 2017!


Also the movies were bad this year. No major actors, no major movies, and a host most people don't know.
 
because it's boring and nobody cares. The best thing they could do is put a free stream online so people can just shit talk it all night.

32.9 million people tuning in Sunday
32.9 million people tuning in Sunday
32.9 million people tuning in Sunday
32.9 million people tuning in Sunday
32.9 million people tuning in Sunday
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Shame. Thought this year was the best crop of movies since 2013.

Unfortunately outside of La La Land, none of the other movies had wide appeal

Arrival box-office gross: $196 million
Hidden Figures box-office gross: $182 million
Hacksaw Ridge box-office gross: $175 million
Lion box-office gross: $89 million

A full half of the nominees were ~$100,000,000+, tbqh.

I agree with most of this, but I think the popularity of the BP nominees does matter somewhat. The only shows in the last 10 years to break 40 million viewers had $250M+ grossing films up for BP, and the highest rated event was when Gravity was in virtual dead heat with 12 Years for BP.

The highest viewership ever was the year of Titanic.

This year had a $250M+ grossing film up for BP--and actually, the odds-on favourite to win.
 
I know we can all be cynical about rich people and a 3 hour show where they congratulate each other but I believe it's good for the Oscars to focus less on the well establish and more on the new up and comers. Stories about Moonlight's success are what we need more.
 

mjc

Member
1. It's largely boring as fuck for the viewers.
2. It's too long.
3. The Academy still pushes safe bait movies over a wider pool of films.
4. People largely don't care anymore because of 1-3.
 

Mr-Joker

Banned
Well there are 3 Marvels movies releasing this year...so when it's the Oscar 2018 give them like all the Oscar including made up one like best plumber.

Time to nominate a Star Wars film for best picture.

Surely there are better movies more deserving of an Oscar than Star Wars.

No wants to see a bunch of Hollywood elites pat themselves on the back at how well they pretended to be other people in movies no one saw.

This pretty much, the Oscars are pretty much a party for the Hollywood folks with very little reason for the younger generation to watch them.
 

Ithil

Member
It will keep dropping until they stop obsessively putting it only on TV and the network's site. They have to start properly live streaming it on the internet.
 
I love the Oscars. They're not for you kiddos who like your vidya game tapes and Youtoobs and your apps.

Boring is underrated. We need more boring. Everything is way too exciting. Like the botching of the final envelope last night, this is not a joke. I really like watching it.
 

Kud Dukan

Member
Personally, I think they should push the ceremony back by a month or two. A lot of the films that get nominated are released so late in the year that they still have not had a home release by the time the awards are given out. I know I am not able to see a lot of the nominated films until afterwards, and I know that I am much more likely to switch the Oscars on if I've seen a lot of the films.

It wouldn't solve all their problems (like younger audiences not caring as much about movies in general, for instance), but I don't think it would hurt them.
 
As already brought up, I don't care about a bunch of celebs patting themselves on the back. And the movies I watch never get recognized, generally, so why should I care? There are movies and roles made just for Oscar recognition. It's so transparent when the same types of movies and roles always win, I can't get behind that bullshit.
 
I love the Oscars. They're not for you kiddos who like your vidya game tapes and Youtoobs and your apps.

Boring is underrated. We need more boring. Everything is way too exciting. Like the botching of the final envelope last night, this is not a joke. I really like watching it.

I like watching PoC win. I'll take rich PoC over rich white people.
 
Arrival box-office gross: $196 million
Hidden Figures box-office gross: $182 million
Hacksaw Ridge box-office gross: $175 million
Lion box-office gross: $89 million

A full half of the nominees were ~$100,000,000+, tbqh.



This year had a $250M+ grossing film up for BP--and actually, the odds-on favourite to win.
I got my edit in too late, but I was referring to domestic grosses.

My point is, mainly, nominating big blockbuster grossing films does help viewership somewhat, but it's the combination of that and a narrative that the film has a real shot at winning the big prize that drives ratings the most.
 
That's too bad because Kimmel was great. I think increased transparency with how movies get nominated and how many votes each film gets would do the show wonders.
 

Sapiens

Member
The Walking Dead's Eugene episode of him playing Yars' Revenge was probably a big factor.

Yars. Revenge. People.
 

ahoyle77

Member
Just have a best picture that you might have actually seen category. Set the threshold as 150 or 200 million domestic box office. Make the the second biggest award.

The Oscars used to be dominated by movies with mass appeal. Not so much anymore.
 
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