The Oscars is Hollywood’s star-studded tribute to itself, and it is rolled out every year with the drama and fanfare one would expect if the fate of the planet depended on it.
This year was a particularly pugnacious spectacle, filled with celebrities quick to take political potshots at the incoming president.
Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel’s slams were relentless. His opening salvo:
“This broadcast is being watched live by millions of Americans and around the world in over 225 countries that now hate us.”
It was followed by a joke about the president’s purportedly ‘racism’:
“I do want to say thank you to President Trump. […] Remember last year when it seemed like the Oscars were racist? That’s gone, thanks to him.”
The Oscars host even worked in a shot at the president’s daughter Ivanka, as reported by AM New York:
Poking fun at best actress nominee Meryl Streep, Kimmel called her “highly overrated” and asked the audience to give her a standing ovation. “Nice dress, by the way,” he said. “Is that an Ivanka?”
Then there was this howler over the president’s rants on Hollywood celebs (which he actually hasn’t done at the time of this publication):
“Some of you will get to come up here on this stage tonight and give a speech that the president will tweet about in all caps during his 5 a.m. bowel movement tomorrow, and I think that’s pretty excellent if you ask me.”
Kimmel actually had to check to see if Trump was still awake:
“We’re more than two hours into the show and Trump hasn’t tweeted about us once. I’m starting to get worried about him. Can you pull my phone up on the screen?” Kimmel tweeted, “Hey, @realdonaldtrump u up?”
In addition to the politically biased jokes, the Academy Awards production itself was kind of a joke. Take this image used during an “in memoriam” tribute to dead film artists. The main problem? The woman is still very much alive.
Then there was the coup de grâce during the “best picture” awards presentation. After “LaLa Land” was announced as the winner, the producers had to interrupt the speech to inform them there’d been a mistake — and ‘Moonlight’ had actually won.
Now comes word that Hollywood may have paid the price for mocking the duly elected President of the United States during its pretentious gala: the ratings took a nosedive.
These preliminary Nielsen ratings come via Variety:
Overall, though, the early numbers indicate ABC might be looking at another big drop in audience. In Nielsen’s metered market overnight ratings, which measure the top 56 markets in the country — representing about 70% of the viewing populace — the 89th Academy Awards brought in a 22.4 household rating/36 share and a 12.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic in Nielsen’s 25 local people meter markets.
The 2016 Oscars, for comparison, brought in a 23.4 household rating and a 36 share, down from 2015’s household rating of 25.0 and 2014’s massive 27.9. Last year’s telecast ended up drawing 34.3 million pairs of eyeballs; 2015, 37.3 million. Both paled in comparison to 2014’s haul of 43.7 million. Sunday’s overnight rating is also just up from the previous low-water mark of 2008, when Jon Stewart hosted and pulled a 21.9 overnight rating that ended up translating to 32 million viewers.
The major metropolitan areas on the coasts were the highest drawing markets. This is no surprise since Hollywood elites tend to ignore the tastes of “flyover country.” The ratings for the top markets in the U.S. in rank order: New York (31.1); San Diego (30.7); Los Angeles (30.5); Chicago (30.5); and San Francisco (30.3).
While Hollywood was taking shots at the president, he was ignoring them — on Twitter and at the Governor’s Ball — while honoring military servicemen.
It looks like America was busy ignoring Hollywood, too.
Source:ijr.com