Before we even get to the awards and trailers, we should first talk about how the (non game trailer, of course; that's why people tune into this award show and not the often-cited
British Academy Games Awards or the
Interactive Achievement Awards, which are exactly what some of you are asking for) advertising was interspersed with the actual content of the show.
Many of the complaints seen in this thread (and throughout social media) would be resolved through simply allowing sponsored content to be in advertisement periods. Game trailers presented by Microsoft, Sony, EA, etc. were already in that time for this show; at this point, even stacking the advertisements on to those show breaks would help. Again, this is without
changing any of the content.
Keep the sponsors, as that's how you can afford the venue and spectacle.
Keep the trailers, as that's why people watch TGAs every year and don't even know about BAFTA's or AIAS's award shows.
Keep the musical interludes, as that's how you entice the more mainstream crowd to tune into an otherwise niche event that would otherwise only be watched by enthusiasts like the ones on this forum.
But please, please,
please put advertisements in a more clear space for them to thrive and for spacing of the main content. That way people can know "Yes, this is when I can go to the bathroom!" instead of doing so during the show's Shick razor man and potentially miss out on a world premiere or an award that they wanted to see.
Also, ditch the pre-show. You could have kicked off the show with that Breath of the Wild trailer and I
guarantee that viewer retention would have increased simply because of the strong start. I agree that Kojima needed to be the first award recipient presented, and I'm thankful that he was.
Edit: Kyle Bosman is great, but his humor isn't for everyone. Having his skit as the first impression for many is actually polarizing. Incorporating these two events into the show (as well as the Pokémon GO award recipients) could have been possible with the previous suggestions, given that the ad breaks would be a fixed time slot instead of variable live advertising methods (variables include how actors/developers respond to hosts, chuckling, stuttering, etc.).
