And the Award for Worst Rated Award Show goes to...

This past April was the 93rd Academy Awards show. I am not sure if you recall watching it? It’s okay if you didn’t watch it, you are not alone. In fact, 64% less people watched it compared to the year before. Even the lowest-rated Academy Award show in 2020 had 54% more viewers. So why did the industry that is known for focus groups, beta testing, and knowing their audience, fail to deliver this time?

When I first read about the poor performance, I wasn’t totally surprised since I myself didn’t watch the show. Considering Covid and its effect on nearly every other industry, it didn’t seem shocking to see a less than average performance. After all, when was the last time anyone went to a movie theater in the past year to see a new release? Perhaps the closing of movie theaters and stalls on big-budget releases had to do with some of the declines in award viewership?

However, with streaming services like Netflix and Amazon releasing new movies straight to the platform rather than theaters, it did seem odd that the drop was so drastic. While the pandemic has adversely affected millions of businesses it has not been so for video content platforms. Being stuck at home for both works and after hours, has caused greater video consumption than ever before. American’s are watching more television series, news, and movies than ever before across all age demographics. With the awards nominating many actors from movies that went straight to streaming platforms, it seemed that the movie theater closures couldn’t be completely to blame.

Looking to find out more, I went to the comments section to find out the unfiltered responses of the people. The vast majority of comments had to do with feeling “preached at” or “lectured to” in regards to politics. While the comments expressed are not our own it is interesting to see what the people are saying. Here are some recurring themed comments from articles based on the poor performing Academy Awards show.

The overwhelming majority of Americans are sick to death of hearing liberal politics spewed by celebrities. It’s a lesson Hollywood refuses to learn.

- Anonymous

At what point will Hollywood understand the audience doesn’t want politicized award shows? People want to be entertained, not lectured. This is a business. The audience is the customer and the customer is always right.

- Anonymous

The big reason for the huge decline-tired of being lectured to. If I want to hear a lecture that’s my choice. Hollywood forgot about its audience.

-Anonymous

Managing customer experiences through community software have taught me that regardless of your understanding of the customer in one area, does not make you an expert in every area. You need to continually seek the opinions of your customers for all areas of your business. In cases like the Oscars, even the biggest budgets and celebrities will fail to produce results when you fail to connect with your audience. With so much politics being shared on social media platforms and news outlets, people are looking for an escape through television series, and movies, and when the two mix the audience does not seem to enjoy it.

If you would like to find out more about our community software please do not hesitate to contact us.

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