We finally know where a majority of Americans stand on the whole politics-in-entertainment debate. And this year’s Oscars ratings — released this afternoon — helped to perfectly crystallize the matter.
Compared to last year, ratings slipped a whopping 20 percent, bottoming out at a record 26.5 million viewers. That’s down nearly 8 million viewers from 2017.
The 2018 NCAA College Football Championship, on the other hand, had a considerable bump in ratings compared to the 2017 game. Over 30.7 million people tuned in to this year’s Georgia-Alabama game. That’s a 17 percent jump up from the 2017 Alabama-Clemson game.
That also means over four million more people watched a college football game than the Academy Awards show this year. And that says a lot about the American people.
It’s not because Americans don’t like movies. We love movies. Nothing has changed about that. What has changed is the attitude at the Oscars, where a bunch of millionaires lecture everyday people about politics. We don’t want to hear about gun laws, open borders, how humans are trashing the environment, and how straight white men are monsters. And that’s all the Oscars were yesterday. It was almost boring because the politics were so predictably skewed to the left. So Americans turned it off.
And to drive the point home further, it’s important to note that the College Football Playoff National Championship wasn’t aired on FOX, NBC, or CBS. It aired on ESPN. And anybody who’s been loosely paying attention to the general public’s attitude lately knows that the network is doing dismally due to its increasing politicization.
A lot of people have no appetite for that kind of stuff — they see it daily on other news networks. But they still turned it on to watch football because sports are the one safe haven remaining. College football is one of the few places that rampant moral pontification hasn’t permeated. Thus it thrives today.
It’s no surprise that a lot of people love football. But it’s also pretty hilarious that more people actually chose to watch a college football game than the most hyped awards show in the entire entertainment industry. It would be one thing if the Oscars played it politically straight, were legitimately entertaining and honored good movies without an agenda.
But they didn’t. And they suffered for it. America likes sports, relatable players, cold beer and honorable victories. They don’t like preachy egoists telling them how they’re contributing to the evils of the world. And the proof is in the numbers.
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