The 2018 overnight ratings for the Oscars showed viewership down 15%+ from the 2017 show. That coincides with precipitous ratings drops for the last few Screen Actor Guild Awards show (SAG Awards), Golden Globes, even the Grammys, CMA’s and American Music Awards. Why is that?
They don’t stand alone in the massive American Entertainment television ratings losses:
- The just finished Olympics saw dismal viewership for NBC. The 2018 Games were the least-watched since NBC scored the rights to the Winter Olympics in 2002. Pyeongchang was down 7 percent from the Sochi Games in 2014 (21.3 million viewers). The second-least-watched NBC Winter Games was the 2006 Games in Torino at 20.2 million, while the most-watched was Salt Lake City in 2002 (31.9 million viewers).
- The NFL 2017 ratings dropped 9.7% — that after an 8% drop in 2016.
- The 2018 Grammy Awards ratings were down significantly from the 2017 telecast, nabbing the smallest audience in the show’s history in the key demo. The three and a half hour awards show averaged a 5.9 rating in adults 18-49 and 19.8 million viewers, according to time zone adjusted numbers. Last year’s show drew a 7.8 and 26.1 million, meaning the 2018 Grammys are down approximately 24% in both measures.
- The Golden Globes took a similar hit. According to a report from Variety, Nielsen ratings were down for the politically heavy award show compared to last year’s. NBC reportedly drew a 5.0 rating among the coveted adults ages 18-49 category and 19 million viewers overall. This marks an 11 percent drop from 2017 and a five percent drop in overall viewers (5.6, 20 million).
- The American Music Awards in 2016 AMAs fell 31% from 2015. In 2017, they were down again, only slightly.
- In 2016 the Country Music Awards (CMA) ratings were the lowest since 2010. The 2017 show rebounded a bit, but still saw 2 million fewer viewers than their average for the 2013-2015 shows.
It Continues
Though I did not personally watch the Oscars, (even though I wanted to see Best Actor/Actress and Best Picture) it did not take but a few moments to be inundated with quotes of the anti-Trump, anti-Conservative barbs bandied about by host Jimmy Kimmel and some other Hollywood-ites when they had a microphone:
- When talking about a move about gays, Kimmel said, “We don’t make films like ‘Call Me By Your Name’ for money,” he quipped. “We make them to upset Mike Pence.”
- Kimmel lauded the actual Oscar statue, noting its age of 90 and taking a swipe at Fox News viewers in the process: “Oscar is 90 years old tonight, which means he’s probably at home tonight watching Fox News.”
Others who were presenters and winners also chimed in with their political correctness demands and shots at the President. (I will not detail any of those for sake of space/time) An irony in Kimmel’s evening was his beginning the show admonishing all who spoke to refrain from negativity and “keeping the show positive.” He then immediately started in on the President and conservatives and conservative causes.
The Blame Game
Many ironies in all this:
- NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell explained away ratings drops on the vast options that NFL fans have for television viewing now that it did not have until recently, apparently. He of course was responding to the tireless questions from the media about the player kneeling in
protest/National Anthem protests throughout the 2017 season and the second part of the 2016 season and their impact on NFL viewership. His statement about fan television options is ridiculous in that saying so infers that all those options suddenly appeared half-way through the 2016 season. If that was the case, wouldn’t it be prudent to expect that ALL television ratings for ALL entertainment shows to drop as significantly as the NFL’s? I guess Oscar, CMA, Golden Globe, Grammy, AMA, and SAG Award ratings all dropped for the same reason, right? - Ryan Seacrest — for many years the darling of Hollywood and the guy you see everywhere on television shows — was shunned this year by numerous stars as they walked the Oscars Red Carpet where Seacrest has been the Oscars “A” interviewer in the past. Why?
Because he apparently is guilty of sexual harassment and they did not want to be seen on television giving him an interview. “Guilty” or “Accused?” Of course that does not matter in Hollywood any longer. Forget about any presumption of innocence. If someone blames someone else for something — anything at all — they are automatically considered guilty until proven innocent. That only applies, of course, to the non-politically correct stars. I could name dozens of Hollywood and New York and D.C. elites who have been accused of various sex crimes who still live their lives unscathed from their reported sexual inappropriateness that has destroyed the professional careers and personal lives of hundreds, simply because of an accusation. Want to get back at someone you don’t like? Next time you are with that guy you want to get and you’re in a crowd, raise your voice high and ask him, “Hey, when did you finally stop beating your wife,” or “You don’t have sex with children like they say, do you?” Guilty until proven innocent, and “You can’t put the genie back in the bottle.”
The Scary Stuff
Those who are members of the Entertainment Business — movie, professional sports, professional music, and television — because of mass media exposure and the gargantuan hunger for entertainment — have become superstars at a popularity level heretofore unseen. And as human nature dictates, all that attention and its fruits result in severe narcissism that drives many far away from realities. They find themselves so far from reality that they lose total touch with it. They no longer relate to people who are NOT in the entertainment bubble with them. And because human nature itself dictates basic selfishness that their success has driven to insane levels, they come to a new reality in which they think they are right about everything they believe or don’t believe, and those of alternate opinion are not only wrong, they are incapable of reason. They think, “I am a star and know that this is right and that is wrong. You don’t believe that? Then you are too stupid to reason the truth as I have.” That may seem a simplification of how they think. But if I’m off with that, I’m not far off.
Sadly, our Millenials and even Generation X’rs grew up with that reality, and many drank the Koolaid of the Entertainment profession. Fortunately not all have — there remains a nucleus of American young people who do not expect instant gratification, feel that only hard work begats significant results, that nobody owes them a free secondary education, a six-figure starting salary with 60 days paid vacation, free cell phones, free cars, free healthcare and the ability to answer to no one but themselves.
Summary
It is laughable to me now to watch and listen as television and radio commentators and editorialists who either ARE the fawners of the Entertainment/Political elitists or who support those adulators of the elite’s personal feelings on every public happening on Earth being accurate. The basis for their almost tyrannical support of the politically correct at the expense of all others reminds me of a few correlatives that I am shocked they obviously do not consider:
- “The Emperor has no clothes.” We all remember the nursery story about the Emperor who was so full of himself and his attire that he had his tailor create for him a personal wardrobe that was the finest in the Land. The tailor became tired of the bloviation of the monarch about his attire, so he decided to trick the politico into believing the new suit the tailor crafted for him was of such fine material and design that no one else could see it. The Emperor egotistically “put-on” the actual non-existent suit so fine no one could see, and rode in a parade. His subjects were all shocked at the site of the nude Monarch. Knowing his reputation, none would say anything aloud until one young boy cried as the Emperor rode by, “The Emperor has on no clothes!” The obvious was real, even if a majority refused to accept it. The truth is “truth.”
- “What if they are wrong?” That’s easy to answer. If they are wrong and Americans are not self-aware sufficient so as to recognize that and then choose the opposite, America has an unnecessary dramatically difficult road ahead. The results could very well be catastrophic.
I have no idea and will not even venture a guess as to where all of this is going. It is obvious that these folks — and many others in other careers — are oblivious to the realities in which a huge majority of Americans live. Sadly, these stories above are examples of the inability or unwillingness of millions to reason, to ask questions, to self-research, investigate and demand facts rather than be truth-seekers and accept nothing less than the truth. Just because we believe something doesn’t make it true. Just because we disbelieve something doesn’t make it false. And there are prices to pay for both.
Isn’t it smarter to find the truth before deciding what to believe? And when it is impossible to know the truth when facing choices, wouldn’t it be smarter to not choose, but wait for the truth?
I’ll leave it here: what if after America has allowed 50 million or so abortions we find out someday that life truly begins at inception, or at 15 or 20 weeks? What would waiting for the truth have hurt?
No, that’s not an “Entertainment World” issue. But it too is a life issue being faced everyday by Americans. And the politically correct “truth” of that issue is the law of the Land. That’s how far this Entertainment debacle can go if we let it.
