The Final Curtain Call for Award Shows

The bright light of the TV illuminates the room, displaying a variety of streaming platforms.
There are so many options to choose from that it almost becomes overwhelming.
The big question is what to watch, and as of late, award shows are usually not viewers’ first pick.
The attention span of Gen Z seems to be getting smaller and smaller; it seems that two and a half hours of the same thing just isn’t entertaining anymore. That is one of the reasons that viewership of award shows has declined.
According to NBC Las Angeles, “the long-term awards ratings decline closely tracks with real-time broadcast and cable television viewing across the board for virtually everything in the U.S. but football.”
NBC is not wrong–it seems high school students find the experience less-than-enjoyable.
One of the reasons live TV isn’t enjoyable anymore is because of the countless advertisements. They make live TV feel like a burden to watch, making it take seemingly forever to actually watch anything.
“Sitting through that long of a show feels unnecessary when I could just check the results [of the award winners] online in a few minutes,” said Junior Cash Peterson.
Peterson’s point of view is not out of the ordinary these days.
“Television has in some ways overtaken movies as a prestige screen art,” said NBC, “but that hasn’t translated into similar awards prestige. The Emmys audience is less than half that of the Oscars.”
Attendance and viewership have been steadily decreasing as celebrities themselves have begun opting out of participation.
“Many celebrities have stopped going to award shows because of the criticism they receive,” said Junior Siena Perez.
Although Perez believes that celebrities stopped going to award shows because of criticism, Peterson suggested that they stopped going because the same actresses and actors keep winning.
“Yes, [the same actresses and actors winning] makes the whole thing feel repetitive and predictable, which is another reason I don’t find [award shows] interesting,” Peterson said.
Not only do award shows come across as boring to most, but there are many more reasons why award shows aren’t being highly viewed.
Peterson suggests the main reasons fewer people watch award shows are the length and repetition of them.
These two factors go hand in hand with NBC’s report on why this generation is abandoning the award show scene.
“That could be a result of Americans having more options than ever in what to watch — and many being too busy to tune in,” said NBC.
Live award shows aren’t as appealing anymore as they used to be because of the variety of other things to watch, which is one of the many reasons this generation seems more interested in watching virtually anything else.
Although award shows have been popular in the past, many no longer want to tune into them for all of their unappealing qualities.