The Tony Awards were a ratings bomb.
The show last night brought in just 3.42 million viewers. They even lost 2 million viewers from their lead in, “60 Minutes.”
CBS is saying the numbers were up on Paramount Plus, but since those numbers aren’t monitored or published, no one knows the truth.
The fact is, the show had no appeal for the mainstream audience once the LGBT stuff kicked in. When one winner declared “I’m a f****t with a Tony!” that was the end. Sorry. And when the two best musical actors showed up in dresses, what did they think would happen? (This isn’t a judgement, just a marketing observation.)
Also, despite Ariana De Bose being an Oscar winner, the show lacked star appeal among presenters. It wasn’t until Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane showed up to present Sean Hayes with Best Lead Actor there were few big names. The people who did present were lovely, but really on the B list.
The show’s producers had a lot to deal with, starting with no writers and some people who didn’t want to be on the show because of the writers strike They put on an entertaining broadcast, but not one for the public at large.
One segment that should have been included was “Dirty Dancing” star Jennifer Grey giving the Lifetime Achievement award to her father, Joel Grey. That bit was included in the pre-show that we saw in the theater, but was only on Pluto TV.
Graph below is from statista.com
