Who exactly was watching “The Tonys”?
The Tony awards were held this past Sunday at Radio City Music Hall and brought in 7.8 million viewers for CBS (up 20% from last year). These numbers were likely padded thanks to the help of Julia Roberts who starred this year in “Three Days Of Rain” and Oprah who produced “The Color Purple” (both presented at the show).
That explains this year’s numbers, but overall, why on earth are the Tony awards even broadcast on CBS? There are scores of award shows broadcast every year, and each of those shows has a built in audience. Country fans will turn into their award show to see their favorite performers, television fans turn into the Emmys, etc. Plus, those audiences can translate nationally. Everyone in the country watching about the same television or listens to the same music. The problem with the Tonys is that its an award show based on Broadway plays and musicals. This means the only possible people it could attract are New Yorkers and theater-junkies (or star-gawkers, but even then we’re talking about the stars of the theater world, not films or tv).
I’m simply amazed that CBS feels no risk in putting this event on every year. Perhaps the Tony audience is more affluent and they can charge more for the ads. One would think it might find more success on a cable channel like Bravo or A&E. Of course, ratings were up this year, so maybe I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about.
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Tags: Award Shows, CBS, The Tonys
June 13th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
I knew people in college who got really psyched about the Tonys — I didn’t understand it then and I don’t understand it now. I guess people care because the Tonys determine what regional theaters and traveling companies will produce in the years, and the broadcast also includes numbers from the shows — numbers that Middle America doesn’t have access to. Basically, I understand it now that I’ve written this paragraph.