tony ratings from Variety
tony ratings from Variety
jerseygurl
Understudy Joined: 6/7/05
#1tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/11/07 at 5:27pmPreliminary nationals for the "61st Annual Tony Awards," meanwhile, suggest Broadway's biggest night hit a ratings low Sunday with a 1.2 rating/3 share in adults 18-49 and about 6.3 million viewers overall. In each of the two previous years, the show earned a 1.4/4 in the demo, while its previous low-water mark in total viewers was 6.5 million in 2005.
#2re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/11/07 at 5:29pmFor some reason, that does not surprise me at all :)
Jack: For your information, most people who meet me do not know that I am gay.
Will: Jack, blind and deaf people know you're gay. Dead people know you're gay.
Jack: Grace, when you first met me, did you know I was gay?
Grace: My dog knew.
#2re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/11/07 at 5:32pm
geez, they could have tripled that if only they'd let Legally Blonde perform!!
(kidding)
It's just a message board. Let's not take it too seriously.
Updated On: 6/11/07 at 05:32 PM
#3re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/11/07 at 5:36pm
Yet apparently CBS still won the night? (so says playbill.com.) Even though the Tony Awards was never first in its timeslot at any point during any of the three hours?
Despite Low Ratings, Tony Telecast Helps Lead CBS to June 10 Ratings Win
#4re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/11/07 at 5:38pm
"geez, they could have tripled that if only they'd let Legally Blonde perform!!"
BRILLIANT! HA! :)
Jack: For your information, most people who meet me do not know that I am gay.
Will: Jack, blind and deaf people know you're gay. Dead people know you're gay.
Jack: Grace, when you first met me, did you know I was gay?
Grace: My dog knew.
#5re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/11/07 at 5:39pmApparently 60 Minutes helped CBS win - and the network competition wasn't too tough. "Win" is a relative term here.
"She sang each word, the angels heard ... They closed her mouth and shipped her south. The woman's done."
FosterChild
Broadway Star Joined: 7/18/03
#6re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/11/07 at 5:40pmSooner than later, they're not even going to air these awards on network televsion. They were AWFUL and the producers should be ashamed of themselves.
#7re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/11/07 at 5:56pm
You can't really blame the producers. The Tony Awards has a very limited audience. There's not much that can be done to change that.
A 1.2 rating is embarrassing. To put it in perspective, the "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric," the lowest rated newscast on teleivsion, averages a 5.6 nightly rating.
"I'm not a catcher! I'm a piano player!" -- Schroeder from "Peanuts" ----- http://www.facebook.com/p/Brandon_Bartlett/500719306
Updated On: 6/11/07 at 05:56 PM
#8re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/11/07 at 6:03pmWhy can't we just not make the shows all compete against each other, sending message boards into a tizzy?
It's just a message board. Let's not take it too seriously.
#9re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/11/07 at 6:06pmTVBoy, it had 6.3 million viewers. Just 1.2 in a certain demographic. It's still pretty bad, though.
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.
RentBoy86
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
#10re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/11/07 at 6:06pmIt's true that they'll never been the Oscars, but I think CBS knows that and I thank them for airing the awards every year for people who can't make it to NYC to see them. The awards this year just sucked because of the competition. We know that SA would win everything so their weren't really any "upsets" except maybe for "Best Actor in a Musical."
#11re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/11/07 at 6:13pm
We are both wrong... I was going off what the original poster said. I work for CBS and just asked about the ratings. I'm told the official rating is 4.2 with 6.3 million viewers. (The rating and actual number of households viewing is different.)
"I'm not a catcher! I'm a piano player!" -- Schroeder from "Peanuts" ----- http://www.facebook.com/p/Brandon_Bartlett/500719306
Updated On: 6/11/07 at 06:13 PM
Billy Broadway
Swing Joined: 6/11/07
#12re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/11/07 at 7:18pmThe Tony award results were posted and available on the web three hours before the Tony broadcast aired on the West Coast of the USA. It makes one ponder how decisions are made at CBS. It seems as if no consideration is given to the demographics of theatergoers residing west of the Hudson River.
#13re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/11/07 at 7:44pmBilly, CBS News covered the awards as they were announced, as did most other news organizations. It would have been silly for CBS not to post the winners, while Drudge, the AP, and the Tony Awards site itself, all were.
"I'm not a catcher! I'm a piano player!" -- Schroeder from "Peanuts" ----- http://www.facebook.com/p/Brandon_Bartlett/500719306
#14re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/11/07 at 8:13pmReally, the only thing that can be done at this point is to move the show to PBS or something.
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
jerseygurl
Understudy Joined: 6/7/05
#15re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/11/07 at 10:45pmtwo of CBS's biggest series' stars have theatre pedigrees - gary sinise and mandy patinkin. why weren't they there?
#16re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/11/07 at 10:54pmHonestly? They probably didn't want to do it. I work for CBS and for the past several years I've been given several comp tickets to the Tony Awards. They are excellent seats down front, but many at CBS pass on them because they don't want to go. I even have a hard time talking my friends into going with me. Trying to get a celebrity to sit through a three hour award show, that hardly anyone watches, is even tougher.
"I'm not a catcher! I'm a piano player!" -- Schroeder from "Peanuts" ----- http://www.facebook.com/p/Brandon_Bartlett/500719306
#17re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/12/07 at 12:28pm
OUCH - this is from tvsquad.com:
"This year the Tony Awards garnered the lowest ratings since 1992. Most people are quick to say that it's because they were broadcast on the same night as the finale of The Sopranos but we all know better, don't we?
The Tony Awards are given for excellence on Broadway, which for many years now has been an oxymoron. Aside from the occasional movie star driven vehicle like Martin Short's Fame Becomes Me or blockbusters like The Producers, Broadway has done very little of note in a long time. More importantly, any decent Broadway production is overpriced while also being sold out, giving average Americans little chance to ever see a Broadway show.
All that aside, it still puzzles me why anyone would be interested in spending three hours watching an awards show for productions and people they know next to nothing about. Are there people outside of New York who are so tuned in to the shows on Broadway that even though they have never set foot in a theater that didn't sell Raisenettes, they still want to know who won?
The biggest question I have is why other award shows like the Cable ACE Awards and The American Comedy Awards go unwatched and eventually unproduced, when the Tonys continue to merit three hours on network television year after year? Is it strictly for nostalgia or are Broadway shows such money machines that it can't help but spill over onto TV?
Personally, I have never watched the Tonys, nor do I know anyone who does. It just seems fairly obvious to me that it's time for the Tonys, the Miss America Pageant and any other dinosaur of an awards special to find a cable channel where they live out the rest of their days and then quietly fade away."
#18re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/12/07 at 12:37pm
Eh the tvsquad report is an arse but parts of it are very truthful.
I mean the fact is most people really just dont know about them (outside of new york) and outside of any hard core fans.
Heck honestly .... how would you? I knew very little about spring awakening till last week when i went and saw it. Majority of people have no clue who any of the shows are (aside from Mary Poppins). And really why would they? New york ISNT cheap to go to. And for many cities it would be a few years before its on tour.
IMHO .... people watch it mainly for the musical snippets than anything else. I'd say increase those to more than just those nominated. And cut back on a few of the awards and tributes that will bore people.
Also imho .... 110 in the shade and Grey Gardens performances make almost no sense if you had no context of the show.
#19re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/12/07 at 1:02pm
Aside from the occasional movie star driven vehicle like Martin Short's Fame Becomes Me or blockbusters like The Producers, Broadway has done very little of note in a long time.
INCORRECT!
More importantly, any decent Broadway production is overpriced while also being sold out, giving average Americans little chance to ever see a Broadway show.
Largely true. Ticket prices are rising and popular shows are hard to get into, but there's still a bazillion discounts for worthy if not-so-popular shows. Although having a bazillion discounts does not necessarily excuse the massively huge ticket costs in the first place.
Are there people outside of New York who are so tuned in to the shows on Broadway that even though they have never set foot in a theater that didn't sell Raisenettes, they still want to know who won?
Um... yes. :P
I wonder if it's time for Them (whoever They are) to start looking hardcore at web broadcasting. The Tony awards may not be a viable prospect for television forever, but a good quality web broadcast would take up no television space and have the awards readily available to anyone who wanted to watch, on a global scale. Hell, I wouldn't even mind paying a small supplement for the privilege if it was the only way for me to watch the show. And people are watching more and more things on their computers these days, so it could really work.
#20re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/12/07 at 1:10pm
The guy who wrote that article is a dumb f*ck.
He is clueless. Broadway is the hottest it's been in YEARS. Highest grosses ever. If no one wants to watch these awards, why would 6.5 million people tune in?
#22re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/12/07 at 1:20pm
The problem is its just not that exciting at all
The performances this year were pretty dull and they were no bug thing to pull viewers in
What made me laugh is they wouldn't let blonde perform but in the adverts i watched in between 60 mins they kept using Ohmigod music in the bacground Hmmmmm
Namo i love u but we get it already....you don't like Madonna
#23re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/12/07 at 1:29pm
For what its worth, I personally thought this was one of the best Tony telecasts in years. Statistics have shown that no matter what you do with the production, the Tonys are always going to be a low rated affair. You could have Nicole Kidman and Brad Pitt singing songs from THE SOUND OF MUSIC and nobody would watch.
This comes up every year and posters always bitch and moan and predict CBS will drop the show - but the network, thankfully, seems dedicated to keeping the broadcast - ratings be damned.
Someday, perhaps the show will move to cable - but for now, we should all just be happy that theatre is getting any mainstream television attention.
jhonaker
Chorus Member Joined: 2/21/07
#24re: tony ratings from Variety
Posted: 6/12/07 at 1:37pm
"I've been given several comp tickets to the Tony Awards. They are excellent seats down front, but many at CBS pass on them because they don't want to go."
How sad. I think it'd be incredible to attend the Tonys.
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