• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, January 22, 2024

Consider the current marketing power of entertainment award shows going forward.

The most recent “Emmy Awards” on Fox posted an underwhelming 4.3 million viewers -- another record low, and the fifth time in six years.

Still, what if anything does this mean for marketing of TV and movie content going forward?

Seemingly, major award shows should always boost the businesses that are associated with them.

But how exactly does that happen now? At best, it seems to give a boost to what may be under-the-radar shows like Hulu’s “The Bear” or Netflix's “Beef,” or even more popular shows like HBO's “Succession.”

For a few years, it seems the “Emmy Awards” were not only subjected to declining interest from TV audiences, but critics of the show itself.

This year, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences did something better, content-wise -- it had nostalgia, bringing back classic TV shows with their starring performers onstage. 

This included recent shows like “Grey's Anatomy” (with former cast members) as well as long-ago shows like “Ally McBeal” and “Cheers.” All that brought a lot of warmth and appeal to fans watching on TV in their living room.

Consider other award shows for a moment. In 2023 the biggest entertainment award show -- ABC’s “The Academy Awards” -- gained 12% to 18.7 million Nielsen-measured viewers. The Golden Globes” this year on CBS was up 50% to 9.4 million viewers. 

For sure, the pandemic of recent years put the kibosh on these TV events. But there has been a noticeable tick up.

Curiosity, we guess. Content in these awards shows got hyped by new or existing music artists, films, TV shows, performers.

Taking the Grammys of a year ago. In 2023 CBS' “The Grammys” grew 30% from a year ago to 12.5 million.

While major popular musical talent appearing on the show is crucial, one of the out-of--the-box winners was Samara Joy, a 23-year-old jazz singer from the Bronx who won the Grammy a year ago for best new artist -- that is, overall artist for among all music genres and not just jazz.

Increasingly, the likes of the “The Oscars” have been occupied by late fall/winter adult-skewing movies from independent production companies -- and also from the likes of streaming platforms, like Netflix, Apple TV+ and others: 

In 2023, A24's “Everything Everywhere All That Once” won Best Picture and the previous year, it was Apple TV+'s “Coda” -- movies that then appeared somewhat quickly on streaming.

Those streaming platforms are key piece of the movie promotion machine now -- especially for these modestly budgeted adult-targeted movies.

For the last few years, this has been the big shift here for “The Oscars”,  which many have worried about, that the big wide-appeal movies were not getting their due -- something that could help dramatically raise TV viewership when it comes to award time.

Given that this past year's big box office hits Warner Bros. Pictures “Barbie” and maybe Universal Pictures “Oppenheimer” may get some notoriety in the event -- two very non-action superhero movies -- perhaps this could help bring big crowds to the small screen when it comes to honoring films with award hardware.