The 92nd Academy Awards featured some of Hollywood’s biggest stars including Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Scarlet Johansson, Al Pacino, Charlize Theron, and Renee Zellweger; nominated directly or for their movies.
The Oscars ceremony hasn’t seen that kind of star power like this in a very long time and much to everybody’s surprise, the South Korean anti-Capitalist film “Parasite” was the big winner.
But Hollywood just got a huge wakeup call about its American relevance after these jaw-dropping Oscar ratings were released.
The Oscars have become the laughingstock of America and the epitome of hypocrisy.
Hollywood celebrities were all for an industry reform at the height of the Me Too era scandal by giving minorities more opportunities and equal pay for female counterparts. But then we found out none of that actually happened.
Years earlier at the Oscars, Hollywood elitists applauded convicted child rapist Roman Polanski when he won the golden statue for his Holocaust film “The Pianist.”
The Academy told standup comedian Kevin Hart that he must apologize for several supposedly “anti-homosexual” tweets he made ten years prior, and he refused. But then at the 92nd Academy Awards last Sunday, homophobic rapper Eminem performed his hit Oscar-winning song “Lose Yourself” for them. Did they ask him to apologize for his homophobic lyrics? They didn’t.
It’s all Hollywood hypocrisy.
But with arguably one of the more competitive Oscars in recent memory and all of the star power collecting statues, you would think it would be one of the highest-rated.
That couldn’t be further from the truth.
The ratings were a historic low; drawing 23.6 million total viewers and a 5.3 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic, based on Nielsen’s Live+Same Day Fast National ratings ordered by ABC. That is down sharply, -20% in viewers and -31% in the demo, from last year’s 29.6 million viewers and a 7.7 adults 18-49 rating. It also is down double-digits from the Oscars’ previous smallest audience, 26.5 million in 2018.
In other words, America doesn’t care about Hollywood anymore. It has become a self-congratulatory overly political jawing fest that working-class Americans are insanely tired of. We officially have Hollywood fatigue.
The Oscars has become a niche awards show for people that watch Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” Stephen Colbert’s “The Colbert Report” and other late-night shows that particularly criticize President Trump and his administration.
The Oscars used to be an event that featured heavyweights like John Wayne, Paul Newman, Jimmy Stewart and a slew of other stars that wouldn’t dare try to manipulate you into their way of political thinking.
These new stars use the awards shows as a platform to get political. Winner of Best Supporting Actor last Sunday, Brad Pitt, criticized the Senate for not allowing John Bolton to speak. Winner of Best Actor, Joaquin Phoenix, had an entire speech attacking people.
It’s obnoxious and we’re all tired of it. That’s why the ratings have steadily declined over the last decade.
Here are the ratings over the years:
2020: 23.6 million, Parasite (No host)
2019: 29.6 million, Green Book (No host)
2018: 26.5 million, The Shape of Water (Jimmy Kimmel)
2017: 32.9 million, Moonlight (Jimmy Kimmel)
2016: 34.4 million, Spotlight (Chris Rock)
2015: 37.3 million, Birdman (Neil Patrick Harris)
2014: 43.7 million, 12 Years a Slave (Ellen DeGeneres)
2013: 40.3 million, Argo (Seth MacFarlane)
2012: 39.3 million, The Artist (Billy Crystal)
2011: 37.9 million, The King’s Speech (Anne Hathaway/James Franco)
2010: 41.3 million, The Hurt Locker (Steve Martin/Alec Baldwin)
2009: 36.3 million, Slumdog Millionaire (Hugh Jackman)
2008: 32.0 million, No Country For Old Men (Jon Stewart)
2007: 40. 2 million, The Departed (Ellen DeGeneres)
2006: 38.9 million, Crash (Jon Stewart)
2005 42.1 million, Million Dollar Baby (Chris Rock)
2004: 43.5 million, The Lord Of The Rings: The Return of the King (Billy Crystal)
2003: 33.0 million, Chicago (Steve Martin)
2002: 41.8 million, A Beautiful Mind (Whoopi Goldberg)
2001: 42.9 million, Gladiator (Steve Martin)
As you can tell, there’s a downward trend here and the host is irrelevant. But it’s too little too late for these awards ceremonies; Americans will continue to change the channel and there’s nothing they can do at this point to stop it.