A couple of things about Steve’s Header vs the actual Deadline Headline:
1. The Roll Up Your Sleeves special was hosted by Ciara and Russell Wilson, not Joe and Barack Obama. I did not see it (or any show broadcast Sunday, I am currently inhaling the Danish series “Bergen” on Netflix, which is not quite great but kind of half way between Scandal and The West Wing, except in Copenhagen) and am sure it was a groaner to the extent it tried to be entertaining, but if it got 1.3 million people to think about getting vaccinated (and if even 20% of that number was not already vaccinated) it was the most important TV program of the night.
2. Deadline’s headline is a step in the right direction of how the ratings for Event programs should be thumbnailed: not just in terms of being up or down from previous years, but in terms of how they perform against other programs that night (or week, month or year).
I myself have never seen the ACM awards, but If (Say) they were the 20th highest rated non sports program last year (or averaged #20 over the last 5 years) and are in track to be #20 or higher this year, then their ratings should be considered good, even if down in absolute numbers from last year.
Similarly, if the Oscar ratings are down 35%-50%, but the show is still the top non sports rated program of the year, it would be a success. That kind of relative analysis is not all that matters, but as long as the number of eyeballs is still solid compared to other advertiser options, it is probably most important.
2. The article implies (but does not explicitly state or comment) that the CMA ratings were 1.6 in 2019, 1.0 in 2020 and .8 in 2021. That means the ratings were down 63% last year compared to 2019, and only down 20% this year compared to last. As ratings drop you would expect to see negative acceleration in the curve, like this, as the percent of remaining viewers who are hard core fans grows. Still, for a show that is still popular enough to be top rated on a Sunday night, this is another positive point.
3. Luke Bryant won an award? Really? I do watch AI (On Hulu, a few days later, so I can avoid commercials, usually late at night so I can also minimize the shame of family knowing what I am doing. If my wife wakes up and sees me watching something on my iPad in the middle of the night, she knows it’s AI or The Voice, not, porn, which I could watch with less shame).
I had never heard of Luke until he started doing the show, and still can not associate him with any song. I had never heard of Blake until he started The Voice, but at least now, while I can not name any song he sings, there are a couple that if I heard them I would recognize them. And Blake has recognizable charm, and a surprisingly good voice (I would like to hear him do one of those albums from the Great American Songbook, he is something of a crooner). But Luke Bryant has no charm detectable by me, a voice that holds no particular appeal, and his only claim to fame in my book is that for three years he has been less obnoxious than Katy Perry.
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