This past Sunday people tuned in to watch the Grammys, and before you ask, no one was slapped.
If you’ve read my editorials and pieces on the various award shows that get broadcast on national TV, you’ll know I’m not a big fan of them. To be honest I forgot the Grammys were last night, so I turned them on to have on in the background while I did some other things and… it was much more entertaining than the Oscars could ever hope to be. Now, I haven’t followed popular music since I was in grade school, and in recent years I’ve listened almost exclusively to showtunes and rock. So it’s safe to say I’m not the authority on the Top 40s. But why I like the Tony’s is also why I think I like the Grammys more and more: actual entertainment.
While the ratings for the Tony Awards are usually abysmal anyway (theatre is not really everyone’s cup of tea to begin with), I always love the live performances by the various casts of the musicals. That is what is great about the Grammys, although they have the usual bloviating and sometimes unfunny commentary of most award shows, the hottest artists of the year give a live performance. It’s almost like a concert you can have on in the background.
I say in the background because it was, of course… over 3 hours long. Full disclosure I went to bed before it even ended. None of these award shows need to go that late (or maybe I’m just grumpy because I get up so early). However, I think the length was more justified. Why? The performances, of course. Now they could easily play a small clip, dole out awards, and wrap it up in 90 minutes tops, but to be the big ad draw/event that people hope for, you need a way to lengthen the ceremony, and that’s why it is the way it is. Not to mention, Ukrainian President Zelinskyy dropped in for a video call, already doing better than the Oscars. Also the “In Memoriam” had a touching performance of a few Sondheim songs, ending with “Somewhere” from West Side Story.
This brings me back to my favorite dead horse to beat, the Oscars. Forgetting the slap for a second, (which I know its hard as for some reason, people still care A LOT about it) what is really at the Oscars that you need to be glued to your TV for? Sometimes comedians host like Ricky Gervais who if I’m giving my honest opinion, is pretty much the gold standard to host these shows nowadays. But I bet they’ll try to play it safe next year, so comedy may not be as good. “Original Songs” have performances by the musicians, but that is only a fraction of what the Grammys do. Also categories continue to get cut and pushed to the sideline… for stuff like the popular movie category which like many things that night took a back seat to Big Willie Style, and as much as people say the slap was staged (I was in that camp for a bit) something like that is unlikely to happen for a while.
So what are we left with? You guessed it. Celebrities with gift bags so expensive that they could pay off your mortgage 2 or 3 times over GUSHING about how great THEY are and thanking God for the opportunity to be crowned “Best Actor” by a voting body who doesn’t even know half of the eligible movie releases exist. This itself could be an hour, but nooooo it has to be stretched to 3 1/2 hours as if it’s still 1965 and the family is surrounding the 19 inch black and white TV to watch Ed Sullivan. We have Google, we can look up what celebrities look like. There needs to be a reason to tune in anymore, the Grammys and the Tonys (as unpopular as they are) have live performances so they need the extra time, but the Oscars need to figure it out next year, because they are close to falling behind the Golden Globes, which would be pathetic even for the Academy.
P.S. please just bring back Ricky Gervais. INSTANT ratings boost.
