Seth Rogen Wonders If the General Public Cares about the Academy Awards
Does anyone outside of Hollywood care about the Academy Awards?
I love awards season. There's a fun part of Hollywood where you get to see your favorite movies get accolades, feel righteous indignation for the snubs, and bet on the outcome. But one thing I've noticed is that, lately, no one else cares. I used to see my family crowding around the TV to watch, but in the last decade they have seen none of the movies, and don't even tune in.
In fact, last year only around 10 million people watched the Academy Awards live. Down 50% from the year before!
Speaking to Insider, actor/director/writer Seth Rogen mentioned that society might have moved on from the Academy Awards.
He said, “I don’t get why movie people care so much if other people care what awards we give ourselves. To me, maybe people just don’t care. I don’t care who wins the automobile awards. No other industry expects everyone to care about what awards they shower upon themselves. Maybe people just don’t care. Maybe they did for a while and they stopped caring. And why should they?”
He has a point. As aspiring creators of movies and TV, we care a lot about who gets nominated and why. But if you had no interest in the industry, it seems like most people have moved on from the Academy Awards.
There are lots of reasons for this. Films have generally been overshadowed by TV as of late, and the Academy usually fails to nominate movies that a lot of people have seen. But should we care? The answer is no.
The Academy Awards being on TV was done just for ratings. If ABC wanted to drop them, someone else or a streamer would pick up the broadcast. I'll watch them no matter what. And I think publicists and agents will still use nominations as a way to get quotes higher and advertise films.
But in terms of the general public, I think we should stop trying to pander to them with awards for popular movies or adding categories that don't matter to appease them. We should add a "stunts" category, but that's another article. The awards are for people in our industry, and maybe that's all that matters.
Let us know what you think in the comments.
