Ratings: Tony Awards Crash to New Low Versus Soaring NBA Finals

[mvcg66b3r]

Sorry, Broadway fans — America would rather watch its best play on the hardcourt than sing and dance on a hardwood stage.

Game 2 of the NBA Finals on ABC — another overtime affair — crushed CBS’s Tony Awards on Sunday night in Nielsen TV ratings. The best-of-Broadway celebration fell 25 percent year-over-year to a new all-time low.

Meanwhile, the second championship contest between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors was up 22 percent from last year’s. The pregame show, “NBA Countdown,” rose 48 percent year-over-year. The primetime tip-off, “Jimmy Kimmel Live Game Night,” rose 23 percent from its comparable special on June 8, 2014.

http://www.thewrap.com/ratings-tony...etter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mailchimp

Do you think the Tony Awards could move to cable, like the Miss America Pageant did for a while?

 

[TheBigA]

It was just plain awful. Whoever picked those two as hosts should get fired. I watched the first two minutes, and was gone.

CBS has a commitment to the Tonys, as they do the Kennedy Center Honors. Neither get great ratings, but give them prestige.

 

[vchimpanzee]

As much as I despise Neil Patrick Harris, he does a great job whenever he hosts. I like Kristin Chenoweth a lot but she should stick to playing characters.

I don't know who that other guy is but he should never host again.

Other than the hosts it was a great show. I don't have the money or the desire to travel that far but I wanted so much to see most of those plays and musicals.

Technically I do have the money but it would be crazy to spend it like that.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I just remembered. The "In Memoriam" wasn't done all that well. On my 13-inch TV some of the names were too small, and they weren't on long enough.

 

[Oscar Madison]

CBS got involved with the Tony's because the company was a major investor in a lot of Broadway shows and got the recording rights for its Columbia Records divisions (original cast albums were big sellers and often stayed big sellers for years and years). Now CBS no longer owns Columbia Records. So what's their continued interest in promoting Broadway shows.

Keep in mind, V, that these shows have or shortly will have national tours coming to a town near you.

 

[TheBigA]

Now CBS no longer owns Columbia Records. So what's their continued interest in promoting Broadway shows.

CBS sold Columbia Records to Sony in 1988. This is not a recent development. If soundtracks were their only motivation, they would have been gone 25 years ago. The company also has a major presence on Broadway with the David Letterman Show. In the past, they could use it to drive interest and attention. Not now.

The Tony Awards has delivered better audience with the right hosts. Hugh Jackman or the aforementioned Neil Patrick Harris did a much better job. I blame the hosts.

 

[sandiegoinexile]

The show did finish second for the night and is good counter-programming to sports. Although the demo rating was the lowest ever, the 2007/2008/2012 shows were lower rated than this year. The co-hosts were TOO INVOLVED. Neither did well. Kristen Chenowith can belt out a tune, but she is weak in the hosting skills. And Alan Cumming may have a Tony, a fragrance, and a 6-year stint on The Good Wife, but his scottish brogue makes him barely understandable as a host. I do think he had more outfit changes than Ms Chenowith too.

It certainly didn't help that there was no "hot show" to attract eyeballs. No Kinky Boots, no Hedwig, no Book of Mormon. And it was a horrific decision to incorporate the hosts in everything, from pre-recorded voiceover announcements, to backstage camera mugging, to dance performances, all in addition to their scripted often-woeful on stage banter.

It would be silly to move the show to winter, only to get lost in the endless deluge of silly award shows. PBS used to carry a portion of the show, but CBS wanted it all to itself and bought all the rights. Sure, CBS could have slapped a NCIS rerun marathon on Sunday night and gotten better ratings, but it's not like many folks are tuning in to non-sports network TV on a Sunday night

 

[TheBigA]

Kristen Chenowith can belt out a tune, but she is weak in the hosting skills.

She must have a good agent. She keeps getting hosting gigs, and she always sucks. Her track record is worse than the Chicago Cubs.

 

[brian4]

Speaking of the NBA Finals, I don't know how or why, but I've always believed that the NBA Championship is fixed/has a pre-determined. It really doesn't make any sense and something this big would've gotten out by now. But in the last 34 years, only 11 teams have won the title. And of those 11 teams, only the Dallas Mavericks won once. This year will be a new team added to the total.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

It certainly didn't help that there was no "hot show" to attract eyeballs. No Kinky Boots, no Hedwig, no Book of Mormon.

Maybe I'm not plugged into the right sources of pop culture, but it seems to me that a "hot show" would only barely affect the ratings because not that many people know what is hot before watching the show.

Same logic that applies to an Oscar-winning movie that suddenly starts selling out theatres again.

 

[umfan]

I'm surprised the show is still carried on network TV. There must be an advertiser base that makes it an acceptable business decision to continue. I could see this moving to cable or cease being televised altogether at some point. Not likely in the near term.

 

[Oscar Madison]

It's called counter-programming. Something for people who don't watch professional basketball. And there are still advertisers who want to reach elite consumers. Ratings, like politics, are not just about an over-simplified horse race, contrary to what the ADD MSM want to tell you.

More likely: The NBA will move to cable - better yet to pay per view. Lots of people willing to pay for sports.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Keep in mind, V, that these shows have or shortly will have national tours coming to a town near you.

Charlotte does have a strong interest in live theater.

Still, I never go.

I saw "Cats" once on PBS. I'm sort of hoping for some of these great plays and outlandish musicals to come to TV the same way. With the same great performers I saw!

 

[mvcg66b3r]

Awards Shows Falter as Sports Strengthen Their Grip on Ratings

The Tonys’ slippage continued a tough year for the latest round of awards shows.

The Oscars, the biggest entertainment show on television, may have been hurt by a slate of nominees lacking major box-office appeal: Best Picture went to Bird Man, which took home just $37 million at U.S. theaters in 2014. The 87th Academy Awards, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, who stripped to his skivvies at one point, garnered 36.6 million watchers for ABC on Feb. 22, down 16% from 43.7 million in 2014, the franchise’s biggest audience in a decade. Among Madison Avenue’s preferred 18-49 demo, the rating declined 18%, to a 10.8 rating from 13.1 for the 2014 show, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres.

The 57th-annual Grammys on CBS on Feb. 8 averaged 25.3 million viewers, off 11% from 28.4 million for the 2014 show; among adults 18-49, the rating was down 14%, to 8.5. Hosted by LL Cool J, the performance-driven show aired on delay in the Pacific time zone. The numbers also were hurt by AMC’s midseason return of The Walking Dead’s fifth campaign and the debut of Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul, which averaged 15.6 million and 6.9 million viewers, respectively.

The Golden Globes’ third and final pairing of the co-hosting team of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, attracted an audience of 19.3 million for NBC on Jan. 11, down 7% from 20.9 million in 2014. Among adults 18-49, the 72nd version of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s party and statuefest declined 11% to a 5.8 rating.

The 66th Annual Primetime Emmys, hosted by Seth Meyers, averaged 15.6 million viewers for NBC on Aug. 25, 2014. That was the franchise’s second-best delivery in eight years, even though the show aired on a Monday in late August. However, it was off 12% from the 17.8 million watchers on CBS in 2013, when the 65th edition ran in its traditional September slot and benefited from an NFL lead-in, though squared off against TV’s biggest primetime show, NBC’s Sunday Night Football.

The 2014 Video Music Awards averaged 8.3 million viewers on Aug. 24, 2014, for MTV, down 18% from 10.1 million in 2013, when Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke played provocateur. The 2014 edition, which featured plenty of twerking of its own from Nicki Minaj, tallied 10.3 million viewers when simulcasts on MTV2, VH1, and Logo were also tabulated. All told, the Moonman show amassed an audience of 13.7 million over the course of the night.

Next up: the ESPYs, which last summer bucked the downward trend. The July 16, 2014, edition, hosted by Drake, was simulcast on ESPN and ESPN2 and saw a 13% rise in viewership, to 2.55 million, and a 31% jump among males 18-34, to 2.1. Presumably, the move to broadcast sibling ABC on July 15 at 8 p.m. ET from the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles will kick the 23rd edition of the sports-award show up a few Nielsen notches. The show will be hosted by Joel McHale and will likely benefit from Caitlyn (nee Bruce) Jenner’s being honored with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.

http://www.livetvla.com/2015/06/10/...ail&utm_term=0_5ccb082d23-d56fb3c3bb-77169037

 

[Don CT]

Why not just move the Tonys down 2 weeks so they don't compete with the NBA? That is like running new programming against the Superbowl.

 

[TheBigA]

Why not just move the Tonys down 2 weeks so they don't compete with the NBA? That is like running new programming against the Superbowl.

They schedule these things for various reasons. Moving the Tony Awards two weeks earlier would put them in May sweeps. Not a good idea if you expect them to be a ratings disaster, which is what they were. Move them two weeks later, and perhaps it's too late for a certain advertiser, who was aiming for a launch in early June.

 

[ShawnHill1]

More likely: The NBA will move to cable - better yet to pay per view. Lots of people willing to pay for sports.

Outside of the regular season games (16-20) that ABC carries, plus whatever playoff games they feel like showing and the Finals, the NBA is practically a cable-only sport now (as is Major League Baseball and the NHL). Hell, even outside of Chicago, Portland, and San Antonio, the NBA is cable-only in local markets...these teams know they can make more money putting their games on a regional sports network than even the past model of combination OTA/cable local broadcasts.

The NBA just signed a new television deal earlier in the year with ESPN/ABC and TNT that will take effect in 2016-17, and ABC will continue to air the NBA Finals exclusively at least until 2024. After that, the NBA could go the route of rotating the Finals between cable and broadcast, but we'll have to wait and see.

 

[Omnibus]

Thought the Tony show was well done. They seemed to have more entertainment than awards and they were all full of talent. The Memoriam was extremely well done with Josh Groban singing " You will never walk alone" with the roll of those who passed scrolling behind them. One error they made however was to fail to add the name of Betsy Palmer who passed a few weeks ago. Thought Kristen Chenowith did a great job too. She fits right in to the Broadway genre. Her partner, Cummings, who stared in a revival of Caberet turned out better than expected. His short pants were a little off putting but that's just his off kilter Brit bent. As to comparing it to the NBA is bizzzzare. That's like comparing the WWF to 60 Minutes. Again, the Tony Awards continues to be the Class Act of award shows but would not attract the same audience as the Country Music Awards or the Indianapolis 500. Let's hope it stays on CBS. One of the last pieces of evidence of the Tiffany Network.

 

[Mediafrog+]

There must be an advertiser base that makes it an acceptable business decision to continue.

Upscale incomes = Ability to travel a lot = Frequent visits to NYC = Going to Broadway shows.

The audience may be relatively small, but they have lots of $$$ to spend. Advertisers love them.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Thought the Tony show was well done. They seemed to have more entertainment than awards and they were all full of talent. The Memoriam was extremely well done.

Maybe not extremely since some of those names were too hard to read and went by too fast.

Again, the Tony Awards continues to be the Class Act of award shows but would not attract the same audience as the Country Music Awards or the Indianapolis 500. Let's hope it stays on CBS. One of the last pieces of evidence of the Tiffany Network.

Except for the co-host named Cummings.