Another score for the writers! Apparent, the People's Choice Awards, which changed format from last year due to the WGA Strike, bombed in the ratings.The new format involved a pre-taped show hosted by Queen Latifah. Each of the awards were given in advance to each of the winners and the acceptance speeches were pre-taped, magazine-style. There was no red carpet and no live speeches.
The ratings decreased from 11.3 million viewers in 2007 to a scant 6 million viewers in 2008. This does not bode well for the Golden Globes or the Oscars. In anticipation of low ratings, NBC is already offering some advertisers cash back for the Golden Globes.
This could be seen as an experiment to determine if new formats could give the studios more leverage against the actors. If that is the case, I would say that the experiment is a colossal failure. As the networks lose more ratings, hopefully the AMPTP will be more appreciative of their writers (not that I'm taking sides or anything. Yes, that was sarcasm).
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-10-2008 @ 1:00PM
David said...
Referring to the Golden Globes, you write: "In anticipation of low ratings, NBC is already offering some advertisers cash back for the Golden Globes."
Um, low ratings? The show has been cancelled. Dateline airs from 7 to 9. They have a one-hour wrap-up show of the Globes press conference from 9-10. They have a one hour edition of Access Hollywood from 10-11.
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1-22-2008 @ 1:51PM
S.Thiery said...
I am not planning to watch any of the awards shows. Most of the shows nominated, I've never heard of. You need pay movie channels to have seen them. This started with the Sopranos and now those types have taken over. Again, so why watch!!!!
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1-10-2008 @ 1:43PM
No1Dad said...
"This does not bode well for the Golden Globes or the Oscars."
I'll eat my mousepad if the actors dont show up at the Oscars. This solidarity BS is heading out the window on that night.
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1-10-2008 @ 2:05PM
Joey Geraci said...
Well, get the grill started because some braised mouse pad is about to be served. There might have been a slight chance that the actors wouldn't have acted in solidarity with the writers in this one arena, but there is no chance they are going to go against the public statements of their own guild (SAG).
1-10-2008 @ 2:13PM
DrMan said...
I find it ironic that the author uses award shows as a reason the AMPTP should appreciate writers. Does anyone watch these things for the writing??
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1-10-2008 @ 2:53PM
C. Hernandez said...
You know, at first I liked the PCA-format, because it's not like a lot of people think to record awards shows, and sometimes there are some great speeches, and getting to see bits from past shows was great.
But then it just turned into a million rounds of "I want to thank the people!" which got annoying, and Queen Latifah sounded like a late-night/early-morning infomercial host.
And the final straw was the third time she tried to sing her way back into the show after breaks. It wasn't funny, it wasn't good, and I just couldn't take it.
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1-12-2008 @ 12:15AM
TVGenius said...
I DVR'd it, and watched it in about 25 minutes. I think the 11 million people might have tuned in for the show, and by the third segment only 6 million were able to stay through it. (Though I guess that's a program average... I wonder how bad the last half hour did?)
1-10-2008 @ 2:56PM
Will said...
I tried to watch but I don't like Queenie and it was beyond boring. There's always the History Channel.
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1-10-2008 @ 3:13PM
horsenbuggy said...
I DVR'd it and then tried to watch it. It was awful. I saw Ellen's acceptance and not much past that.
Again, I'm still confused about how the Critics Choice Awards got to stage an event that was decently attended.
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1-10-2008 @ 5:03PM
YouFaceTheTick said...
So it's a score for writers that nobody cared about an awards show? Maybe it's a sign people are getting smarter and they're going to stop watching all awards shows?
Egad, that's too utopian, isn't it?
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1-10-2008 @ 5:12PM
Seth said...
The SAG Awards are still happening, with writers and stars.
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1-10-2008 @ 9:26PM
David said...
The SAG awards show was cancelled a few hours after you posted. They will announce the winners, but there will be no show.