It’s award show season, and I don’t care

Artistic Significance

We have officially entered the annual entertainment award shows with the Golden Globes held last weekend.

I highly doubt I’m in the minority to say, I don’t care.

Don’t get me wrong; I agree with people being recognized for the outstanding work they do.

I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t since I proudly display my, albeit modest, collection of journalism awards on the wall of my home office.

However, this year’s virtual Golden Globes ceremony sank to a 13-year low in viewership after losing two-thirds of its audience, according to CNBC.

The last time it was that low, 2008, came amid a writer’s strike and the show had to be more of a press conference.

Yes, viewership will probably go back up next year, assuming it’s an in-person show again. But it’s been trending down for years.

I expect it will continue.

The executives around these awards have talked for years about needing to diversify their voters.

For instance, the Golden Globes went under fire this year for a lack of Black representation and that normally shows in nominees and award winners.

Four years ago, the Academy received similar criticism.

The internet meme of “Leonardo DiCaprio Gets Snubbed By Oscar” lasted for years before finally meeting its demise in 2016 for best leading actor for “The Revenant.”

Not “Wolf of Wall Street” in 2014, when he was nominated; not “The Great Gatsby” the year prior or “Titanic” in 1997. All three are generally more recognizable movies.

In 2011, “Avatar” was considered by the public to be a shoo-in for the best motion picture at the Academy Awards, but it lost.

You can find hundreds of award show snub videos on YouTube that point out films audiences think should have won awards but they didn’t.

That is the core problem of these awards that executives don’t seem to understand; they aren’t relatable to current audiences.

The executives like to pretend they understand that by talking about representation, awarding productions that confront social conflicts and the seemingly annual “we messed up” announcements about how they’ll do better, but these fall flat.

They seem fake and pandering to the general public.

If these award shows and critics don’t start recognizing productions general audiences consider good, they’ll continue to be seen as elitists in their ivory towers deciding what’s good for us rather than recognizing that we can have our own opinions.

The awards will always exist, but if executives don’t get the picture, I see viewership continuing to drop until the big award ceremonies will not be worth broadcasting.

Michael Shine is a contributing writer for the Daily American Republic.