Posted: 6/9/15 at 3:58am
Silly thread. Unless anything's changed, lower ratings or not, CBS has never seemed to have any issue selling out premium spots to brands targeting the Tonys older, but affluent audience.
Posted: 6/9/15 at 6:20am
It was up against the NBA Finals (Game 2) which is a pretty good reason for this years drop in the ratings from the previous year.
Posted: 6/9/15 at 9:14am
"Silly thread. Unless anything's changed, lower ratings or not, CBS has never seemed to have any issue selling out premium spots to brands targeting the Tonys older, but affluent audience. "
Trojan Man!
Posted: 6/9/15 at 11:04am
Source? Source? SOURCE?
(Who am I impersonating?)
Posted: 6/9/15 at 11:09am
Personally, I would absolutely love it if they moved it back to a Broadway house, aired it on PBS, and stopped trying to be the Oscars and appealing to what Mencken called the booboisie.
Posted: 6/9/15 at 11:10am
And not even bothering to spell his name correctly will do nothing but increase his love of Broadway. Great job as usual Seth.
Posted: 6/9/15 at 11:11am
Moonves steps down in 2019 so that assurance is not all that comforting. More important is that the Tonys are a no brainer for the network no matter who is in charge.
The only real risk is if CBS makes a play for the NBA contract (or equivalent) in the future.
Posted: 6/9/15 at 11:15am
Let's panic about this now.
Posted: 6/9/15 at 11:49am
Let's not.
In my opinion, the Tony Awards broadcast would actually benefit immensely from a move to cable. More artistic flexibility, a greater focus on Broadway (not "entertainment"), and more televised award presentations. A simulcast on the Bravo! or A&E family of channels might work.
Posted: 6/9/15 at 12:06pm
I can't wait to see the Real Housewives and the cast of Duck Dynasty present Best Musical and Best Play respectively. I think Bravo and A&E would have been good ideas . . . more than twenty years ago when they were still about art and the Tonys didn't mind looking sort of cheap.
Updated On: 6/9/15 at 12:06 PM
Posted: 6/9/15 at 12:08pm
Ha, you've got a point!
Posted: 6/9/15 at 12:12pm
Posted: 6/9/15 at 12:13pm
And one genius wants the focus on "Broadway (not 'entertainment')"!
Posted: 6/9/15 at 12:41pm
It's fine for folks functioning in an ecosystem that contains perhaps as many as 500 lives to jump up and down for a move to cable or PBS (or the internet) but the people footing the bill have to get 13 million people to come see their shows. Even if 500 people see 150 shows a year (like I do) that's 75000 tickets. Oh and PBS-that was a disaster when they did the first hour there; many stations chose not to broadcast it and unlike the commercial networks PBS can't do a damn thing about that. Welcome to the Tonys degrading to the level of the Drama Desks.
Posted: 6/9/15 at 1:17pm
Ratings don't really matter. It's a prestige thing.
Posted: 6/9/15 at 1:47pm
lovebwy-
It's both. and more.
People love to think that decisions are uni-dimensional; they almost never are.
Yes they like the prestige aspect but they also like the money.
At least until Comcast, both NBC and CBS liked being New Yorkers. (ABC less so.) And very few events are as quintessentially NY as the Tonys. (I guess the Macy's Parade which is on both.) My guess is that NBC would still jump at it if given the chance, especially since it is a "neighbor" now.
Posted: 6/9/15 at 2:03pm
Well, here's some good news. When the final ratings were announced, this year's Tony Awards pulled in the same demo as the 66th Tony Awards. Both telecasts had an 18-49 rating of 1.0/3. However, this year's awards show had higher viewership with 6.46 million viewers compared to 2012's 6.01 million viewers.
Posted: 6/9/15 at 2:04pm
That news about viewership, even with the final adjustments included, is not new. It was always going to be higher than its lowest year.
Posted: 6/9/15 at 2:08pm
That is your opinion.
Posted: 6/9/15 at 2:11pm
Actually, that's a statistical fact since there are numbers and data associated.
I suppose they could be subjectively interpreted (ie. "CBS pulling the plug?"), but they can only be objectively processed.
