(03-24-2022 12:17 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(03-24-2022 09:40 AM)Erictelevision Wrote:  The Oscars are Sunday, and 2 E8 games will be played that day.

The Oscars ain't what it used to be, ratings-wise.

Nothing is anywhere close to where it used to be ratings-wise except for sports (particularly NFL football). That's the biggest reason why sports rights keep climbing higher and higher and higher.

The highest-rated shows on TV today would *all* be cancelled if they got those same ratings 10 years ago. The Oscar ratings actually look excellent (at least not counting last year) when compared to how many fewer people now watch linear network TV at any given time outside of sports.

There might be more total TV viewers available as a whole, but that audience is now MUCH more dispersed than ever before. The *relative* power of the Oscars is actually arguably higher in the TV universe. There's no such thing as a "regular" TV show like Seinfeld or Friends that can draw massive audiences anymore, which elevates the *relative* value of live events (e.g. sports, awards shows, news, etc.) and/or shows that have sports-like properties (e.g. reality show competitions) even if their absolute viewership has gone down.