• Advertising Age, Thursday, February 5, 2009 9:45 AM

Virtually every annual award show has suffered annual audience erosion. The Oscars, Grammys and many other award shows on broadcast TV have suffered their lowest or near-lowest ratings in 2008 or 2009.

Brad Adgate, senior vice president at Horizon Media, points out that some of the problems faced by these shows are obvious. The shows are too long, there is a glut of award shows, many of the nominees are too obscure, and too much time is spent on less-prestigious categories.

Other challenges are growing. The current median age of award programs proves that younger viewers are less interested in these types of shows. Also, award shows now face competition from a surplus of similar reality programs on TV, such as "American Idol."

Award shows still deliver higher ratings than most regularly scheduled shows, but they are not the blockbuster events on TV that they use to be. The Oscars have been called "The Super Bowl for Women," Adgate notes, but these days "The Super Bowl for Women" is the Super Bowl.

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