The awards show dilemma

Is tonight’s hybrid presentation of the Tony Awards a harbinger of the future?

Image from Tony Awards website, tonyawards.com

Television ratings for awards shows have been declining steadily for some time. There have been a number of possible factors discussed for this:

• A widening gap between the kinds of movies, plays and TV shows favored by the awards show voters and those favored by the general public. This is particularly relevant to the Oscars. In the glory days of Hollywood, the Academy voters tended to give some weight to successful films, films that had captured the popular imagination. But now, many of the top Oscar contenders are, whatever their artistic merit, simply not things that the vast majority of the American public goes to a movie theater to see. Nowadays, when we go to the movie theater, we go to see big spectacles or low comedy. That’s not to say that we can’t appreciate art or serious drama, but we do so at our own pace, in our own way, sometimes by waiting until it hits the small screen. And if you haven’t seen any of the Best Picture nominees — not one — you’re a lot less likely to spend three hours waiting for the announcement of Best Picture.
• The general increase in viewing and entertainment options. In the days when there were three TV networks, if a big live show with a lot of big-name stars was on one of those three…