Hunter Foster creates "Give the Tonys back to BROADWAY" campaign — Page 15

People are saying that "The Tony Awards should be about this" and it "shouldn't be about that" and "HOLLYWOOD SHOULD STAY OUT OF THE TONYS!"

While it is true that the Tony Awards are ABOUT the theatre community, the ***TELECAST*** of the Tony Awards are about RATINGS. They are TWO SEPARATE THINGS.

The Tony Awards have ALWAYS been about the theatre community. The Tony Awards CEREMONY is ABOUT PROMOTING BROADWAY SHOWS. It's a huge commercial to promote theatregoing. The awards are just an EXCUSE to air such a commercial (in the eyes of CBS). Without the guise of giving out trophies, Broadway doesn't get the national exposure that is gets. Within our community a Tony Award means the world! To CBS, they LOVE when you have Denzel Washington vs. Christopher Walken vs. Alfred Molina vs. Jude Law vs. Liev Schrieber!!

One thing is for CERTAIN -- the Tonys provide an attendance booster for winning Broadway shows, but the TELEVISED Tonys can provide an attendance booster for ALL SHOWS, whether they win, don't win, or aren't even nominated!

But to televise the TONYS, you need a show that gets ratings. Without ratings, the 3-hour program's commercials do not get seen by the amount of coverage that advertisers want and CBS could lose their business. So while individuals at CBS may love Broadway, they still have a business to run, and if the Tonys do not pull in the ratings, it will get dropped. Simple as that.

So the League/ATW have to make sure that the event will get the ratings. Back when theatre was a part of popular culture, people cared. The Tonys received its highest-ever recorded viewership in 1974 when over 20 million people tuned in. We've never seen numbers like that since. Hell, in the past DECADE we haven't even done *half* that. It's just a simple fact that the average household just doesn't care. They can't afford to go to the theatre, let alone take a trip to New York. So why bother knowing what's even PLAYING on Broadway? Here's the history of the ratings of the Tonys:

Day Date Telecast Time Rating/Share # of Homes # of Viewers
SUN 6/13/10 8:00PM-11:00PM CBS 7,470,000
SUN 6/07/09 8:00PM-11:05PM CBS 4.8 8 5,532,000 7,417,000
SUN 6/15/08 8:00PM-11:02PM CBS 4.4 8 4,958,000 6,268,000
SUN 6/10/07 8:00PM-11:01PM CBS 4.2 7 4,613,000 5,704,000
SUN 6/11/06 8:00PM-11:00PM CBS 5.2 9 5,722,000 7,716,000
SUN 6/5/05 8:00PM-11:00PM CBS 4.5 8 4,944,000 6,503,000
SUN 6/6/04 8:00PM-11:00PM CBS 4.6 8 4,975,000 6,464,000
SUN 6/8/03 8:00PM-11:00PM CBS 5.4 9 5,771,000 7,859,000
SUN 6/2/02 9:00PM-11:00PM CBS 5.6 9 5,900,000 7,983,000
SUN 6/3/01 9:00PM-11:00PM CBS 6.3 10 6,467,000 8,935,000
SUN 6/4/00 9:00PM-11:00PM CBS 6.2 10 6,221,000 8,504,000
SUN 6/6/99 9.00PM-11:00PM CBS 7.0 12 6,911,000 9,155,000
SUN 6/7/98 9.00PM-11:00PM CBS 8.4 14 8,232,000 11,748,000
SUN 6/1/97 9.00PM-11:01PM CBS 9.6 16 9,267,000 12,967,000
SUN 6/2/96 9.00PM-11.02PM CBS 6.5 11 6,273,000 8,750,000
SUN 6/4/95 9.00PM-11.00PM CBS 7.7 14 7,346,000 10,226,000
SUN 6/12/94 9.00PM-11.06PM CBS 7.7 14 7,253,000 10,475,000
SUN 6/6/93 9.00PM-11.05PM CBS 8.7 15 8,100,000 11,118,000
SUN 5/31/92 9.00PM-11.08PM CBS 8.9 16 8,197,000 11,721,000
SUN 6/2/91 9.00PM-11.20PM CBS 8.9 16 8,290,000 12,227,750
SUN 6/3/90 9.00PM-11.22PM CBS 7.6 13 7,000,000 10,120,000
SUN 6/4/89 9.00PM-11.19PM CBS 9.3 16 8,410,000 12,329,060
SUN 6/5/88 9.00PM-11.21PM CBS 9.5 17 8,420,000 12,099,540

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the root of the problem has nothing to do with the Tony telecast. It has everything to do with GETTING BUTTS IN SEATS. We need to lower ticket prices, expose national communities to the arts, and support arts education. The goal is to re-introduce the theatre to the average American household as an affordable means of entertainment.

As a teenager, my grandfather would discuss with his friends in the hallway at high school which show they would want to go see that weekend. As a teenager, my father said that theatre became more expensive so he would choose to take his dates to the movies instead. Me? I cannot afford full price tickets. I rely on comps and rush policies.

If we get Broadway back into mainstream entertainment, there will not be such a thing as a Hollywood actor being a significantly bigger draw name than a Broadway actor. And ratings will increase not because popular rock bands are performing, but because BROADWAY names and shows are on the program. Like in the "golden age."

But easier said than done.

In its current state, it is inevitable that CBS will drop the Tonys within a number of years. It's only a matter of time. There's nothing Green Day, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Hunter Foster, Patti LuPone, or Alice Ripley can do about it.

The question is: is it worth it to sacrifice a 100% theatre community-involved ceremony so that 7 million people can watch a Broadway commercial on TV?

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tl;dr (@ Capn)

Bettyboy -- not really comparable. The Tonys show a semi-steady decline by the decade.

The Oscars have been averaging 40 million viewers since 1974. Sometimes up to 10 million more or down to 10 million less, but the up and down figures level off at about 40 million over the years.

The Golden Globes had been getting 20+ million viewers 1998-2004, however in the past 5 years viewership averaged 15 million.

The issue with film/tv awards is that there are so many awards shows that people get sick of them. There's only one nationally televised awards show for theatre.

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I don't care to comment on the actual group itself, but Phyllis, can we end next year's private luncheon with a lovely whipped chocolate mousse?

I feel like that mousse could settle this WHOLE dispute.

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Does Equity know those people are paying dues elsewhere? Surely they will want their cut.

And theatrkid, I think a nice mousse is a great idea. And we'll do a salmon mousse as the amuse-bouche so there will be a nice sense of closure at the end of the meal.

Matt, their standards are more arbitrary than that. They're in a tizzy over Denzel Washington referring to the ATW as the Tony Committee in his speech. Denzel Washington won an Obie back when Hunter Foster was still kissing his sister in the elementary school musicals and Jennifer Cody was- well, probably already 45 and pounding the pavement- but still. He "paid his dues", on New York stages no less, and it's still not good enough for them.

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Well, you call 'em "Cathy" and "Angie," Phyl. What does that say about you?

Come to think of it, I call you "Phyl." What does that say about me?

Maybe we're all part of that allegedly giant herd that Michael Forman claims #*%&@ Cathy so she could get her trophy.

What a jerk!

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I wonder what Stevie has to say about all this.

Wow...just reading through all those comments on the wall, it just makes you feel sad for those people. It's absolutely ridiculous and downright vicious and nasty. So now Catherine Zeta-Jones didn't buy the award, now she slept with someone for it. Don't they realize how they're coming off? That they sound like a bunch of sour, bitter pansies?

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Updated On: 6/18/10 at 09:51 AM

In other news - because I'm getting tired of screencapping and the damn page is open to all - it's also a travesty that Will and Jada Pinkett Smith were seated in front of Bernadette Peters.

Forman cannot have it both ways. CZJ did not destroy "Steve's" song by being unable to sell it while not also mentioning that the Tonys/CBS truncated "Poor Steve's" "non-singer" (isn't that a tad patronizing to Steve?) song which makes it harder to sell. But he is just concerned with making CZJ, an Oscar winning actress, desperate (I am putting that in the most polite terms) to, I don't know, be halfway there on the EGOT.

Updated On: 6/18/10 at 09:59 AM

I wish we saw this Tony more often.