Why Hollywood doesn’t care about Oscar ratings
In all, 32 million people tuned in for the Oscars this year, the lowest number ever. Entertainment writers and bloggers are having a field day with this tragic news, but Hollywood doesn’t care. In the end it’s their night, not ours, and the TV ratings don’t do a thing for what matters most: The bottom line.
Before going forward I should mention that I’ m okay with Hollywood making lots of money. Hollywood is a business, with owners, managers, and employees all trying to pull in a paycheck. Their jobs are to make money, just like its your job to help your company make money. What I’m saying is the Oscars telecast has very little to do with making money.
What matters is the hype that starts in early fall and runs into March. It’s a well-run machine that every talk show, news program, blog, radio host and newspaper can’t avoid, and it works wonderfully in helping Hollywood accomplish its goal of making more money. (Again, making money is OK, for it puts food in the mouths of George Clooney, his hair stylist, and his gaffer.)
Any movie, or person, just nominated for an Oscar gets pushed into the living, breathing mainstream for six months in the hopes that you and I will pay to see it, or them, at the theater, on DVD, or on pay-per-view. Like all awards shows, the idea is get the most publicity for your movie, or star, prior to, or after, the show airs. The studios have already made millions upon millions on movies like Spider-Man 3 and The Bourne Repetition; they need the pre- and post-Oscars hype to sell more shiny discs of No Country for Old Men.
Even Hollywood knows the Oscar telecast offers little in the way of entertainment. It’s an awards show, which are generally all pretty boring to anyone not getting an award. (When you went to your company’s last awards banquet, how many times did you check your watch? Now imagine if it had been spiced it up with a few songs and a marginally funny host. Yes, you’d have been checking your watch twice as much.)
“But 25 years ago the Oscars had, like, 45 million viewers!” Yes, and 25 years ago the average household had maybe 30 channels and no high speed Internet. Let’s face it: Compared to what’s on your TiVo, on your iPod Touch, streaming in your web browser and coming down the satellite, the Oscars can’t compare.
They don’t have to.
This does make some sense, though because the networks are also in it for the money one could assume they want bigger ratings so they can charge more for commercials.