Things went poorly yet again at the woke Tony Awards, which this year managed to garner a mere 3.51 million watchers for their insufferably moronic awards program, a whopping 14 percent decline from 2023, which was a dismal year for the awards show. This year’s poor ratings came despite, if not, in part, because of, former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton’s appearance.
Clinton, as background, was there for her feminist play, which has suffered at the box office. Regardless, she spoke to the crowd and even received a standing ovation for her tiresome lecture on suffrage and how important she thinks voting is after patting herself on the back for the musical she helped create alongside Shaina Taub.
She said, “I have stood on a lot of stages, but this is very special.” She continued, commenting on her own play and how “proud” she is of the woke Broadway production, saying, “I know a little bit about how hard it is to make change so I am extremely proud of this original American musical by Shaina Taub, two-time Tony winner.”
Hillary then brought up suffrage, saying, “Of course it is about some American originals, the suffragists who fought so valiantly for so long to give women in our country the right to vote.” She added, “It is almost impossible to think about what a challenge that was, but now it is an election year and we need to be reminded about how important it is to vote.”
Watch her here:
In any case, the ratings for this year’s Tony Awards were way down compared to when it used to do well, though this year’s poor showing, Tony’s second-worst ever, was still far better than the award show’s worst-ever ratings. That worst-ever ratings experience for the once-beloved show came in 2021, when a dismal 2.6 million viewers tuned in.
The Wrap attempted to explain why ratings were down so much this year, with fewer people tuning in to watch the Tony Awards than tune in every week to watch old game shows like Wheel of Fortune and The Price is Right despite those shows occurring on week days and being far from the once-a-year rarity of the Tonys. It said:
Taking place on Father’s Day might have impacted the show’s viewership, with PUT (persons viewing TV) levels for Sunday marking the lowest Sunday primetime recorded since the measurement began over three decades ago. Additionally, overall TV usage saw a 10% downtick this year when compared to last year’s awards, which aired a week earlier in June.
By contrast, in 2023, the Tony Awards managed to bring in an average audience of about 4.12 million, significantly above this year’s 3.5 million. Last year, though certainly better than the 2021 catastrophe, was still down from 2022 and other, better years. Meanwhile, the show also got bad news in terms of the future and who watched it. This year, it saw a drop in the advertiser-desired age bracket of 18-49, managing only a 0.41 rating, which means about 540,000 people from that demographic. Last year, by contrast, it got a 0.46.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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