Ratings: Tony Awards Broadcast Flirts With Record Lows — Page 2

Notwithstanding some of the nonsense recited above, CBS likes the demographic, and sells it well. And not cheaply. (If you need to realize that, just note the advertisers during the broadcast and the Broadway ones hitting hard as soon as the broadcast clicks off.)

The timing of the broadcast is no accident either: with the double whammy of the NBA and GoT sucking off huge demographics, the time slot would not fare better-probably not as well-with any other programming. So they get a premium audience with premium advertisers instead of what would be fielded were they to instead run their standard fare.

"You really think the people who tuned into the NBA Finals would also tune into the Tony Awards? Hmmm.....Haawww..."

Not that it's a huge sample, but I personally know that there are people who were conflicted between watching the Tony Awards vs. the NBA game (all theatre people from Cleveland). It might be hard to imagine, but there are indeed people who can be interested in both sports and theatre. They are not mutually exclusive interests.

Advertisers pay for the industry key demo, not for "rich white people."

Yet if you notice, many of the ads during the show were for cars, iPhones and other high end items. While I disagree with your assessment about "white people," the Tony awards audience is definitely older and more affluent than the key 18-30yo demos.

CBS is doing well enough to take the hit. I think the hosts did a good job last night. It wasn't like a great NPH year but I was not bored. They were there as much as they needed to be to keep things moving along. Remember when comedians hosted everything? I feel like we've come to expect too many bits that distract from the actual awards show. My issue was the actual performances. They need to do a better job of figuring out how to showcase the nominated (and not nominated) musicals.

"You really think the people who tuned into the NBA Finals would also tune into the Tony Awards? Hmmm.....Haawww..."

In my case, my friends and I were switching back and forth (though didn't miss any of the Tonys while missed a lot of Game 2).

"the tony's need to stop airing the show when the NBA are [sic] on because there [sic] is they [sic] problem"

It's not their problem at all; it is there solution to a problem.

You see:

1. Networks have only one product to sell: air.

2. Like theatre and plane tickets, air precipitously depreciates to zero with the strike of a clock.

3. Some competition is going to suck most of the oxygen out of the air regardless of any action a network takes.

4. The network has to sell (or give away) that air notwithstanding. It can't save it for a rainy day.

5. The network's goal is to maximize the return on its 180 minutes of air running on the subject Sunday night.

6. The Tonys came in first overall among the NBA competition with over a million more viewers than its nearest competition (Dateline at , and with a heavily high net worth demographic that draws a premium from luxury advertisers. That is a LOT more revenue than a re-run of Madame Secretary would generate.

7. Notwithstanding the freak out on display in this thread, the Tonys are brilliant scheduling for CBS and you can be sure CBS will do their best to continue airing the Tonys in strategic slots like this.

"You really think the people who tuned into the NBA Finals would also tune into the Tony Awards? Hmmm.....Haawww..."

Yes because I am one of them. There are actually men like myself who love and have played sports in school that love Broadway also !!