Nielsen data released in advance of Sunday’s Academy Award broadcast indicate that ratings for the once “can’t miss” awards shows are consistently trending down.
Last year, TV viewing for the Emmys hit an incredible low. The Golden Globes and Grammys each achieved their worst ratings in the past five years. The prognosis for this weekend’s Oscars is also weak, based on major films that failed to generate knockout revenues at the box office.
For those of us toiling in Rock Radio at the moment, the trend looks eerily familiar. How do the “experts” explain this multi-media ratings swoon? Some blame the product (especially in the case of the Grammys, we can all relate). But others feel that while these shows are consistently star-studded, they’re also predictable. Nothing especially weird or surprising occurs. The speeches are either poorly prepared or they’re riddled with clichés. Like a once clever morning show that now executes the same bits day after day, awards shows are similarly mundane.
That element of surprise is something that format radio has been lacking for years. It’s what Lee Abrams is attempting to inject into XM, what the Jack format does every quarter-hour, and what our stations are going to have to figure out how to generate. As Seth Godin reminds us in “Purple Cow,” playing it safe in 2005 is risky. Just producing a consistent, predictable radio station may be the quickest way to generating boredom, malaise, and tune-out.
Good luck, Chris Rock. The Academy was wise to hire him to emcee. Hopefully, we’ll be treated to an Oscars show that has a few “Purple Cows.”
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Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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Fred — congrats on your blog. Another reason these shows are fading occurred to me when I watched Jamie Foxx give nearly word for word the same speech after winning the Oscar that he gave after winning the Golden Globes…there are just too many award shows. Everyone knew Foxx and Hilary Swank were going to win…and they had seen their speeches already. It’s like watching a sports broadcast of a game that was pretty boring in the first place on ESPN Classic. TV can never seem to help itself with gorging on something good.