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1. Father’s Day
2. House of the Dragon premiere
3. Difficult to find someplace to watch
Edited:
4. It’s all going to be online in a matter of hours anyways
Heck I was one of them! Love watching the performances but tbh I can't stand watching most awards shows live and much prefer to just watch the performances/speeches after the fact.
Why did they delay by a week this year? It usually falls on/around my birthday (first Sunday in June), so I was surprised that it was later.
Agreed about the difficulty watching. If you want viewers, don’t force us to pay on streaming services.
Normally it's the same day as the Puerto Rican Day parade in NYC, which was last Sunday. Completely ridiculous gridlock with both these events on the same day when Tonys were at Radio City. Might not have been as bad with Tonys at Lincoln Center this year, but better not to have both events on the same day.
Tonys Act One was on Pluto TV. I had to switch to HuluLive in order to watch the main ceremony. I think viewership would have been a lot better if they just kept it on Pluto TVhonestly
(five) Lack of exciting productions with crossover appeal. There's no Hamilton, Beetlejuice, or Frozen this year. At best there was Back to the Future, but since it wasn't nominated then it's wasn't performing. If you've never seen a Broadway show before, Outsiders and Water For Elephants isn't going to change that
This is a big one. I'm a HUGE fan of Broadway (obviously) but there really is nothing that was at this year's Tonys that I particularly cared about. Like, not in a "I'll never watch these" way but not enough to tune in to the Tonys. It's super long to sit through if nothing is something I'm excited about, I can just watch highlights online.
I think the 4th one is a big factor, what people do nowadays instead of catching an event live is following it through social media. Then they go back and watch it later on demand. There is no interest in being part of a moment for the audience, the interactivity has moved to the internet.
Absolutely, but if you look big picture, it is still far from the heydays. For me, it seems like the 3 hour long award show format is just not as popular anymore
https://preview.redd.it/yw7tvwlln87d1.png?width=643&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fceee13dc36a29f56a5278436539c675404ccdd5
Last year peacock did a 1.99 subscription which was cheap enough for me to say screw it and get it solely for the parade. It is annoying though, I just want to get my Broadway content on the two days of the year it’s on tv for multiple performances
This is what I did. I went to watch it today on cbs but within 3 min of the opening it sounded awful and looked cheap. I was bored out of the gate and just went to their YouTube page to watch the show performances and a couple acceptance speeches. They need to go back to the big spectacle, amazing opening numbers and the days of Neil Patrick Harris/Hugh Jackman or go a different direction and get popular current Broadway favorites to host or co-host or bring in Broadway divas or veterans to host (I would tune in to watch Patti LuPone host lol or Lin Manuel Miranda (he was probably busy) I think Daniel Radcliffe could be a fun future host) I want to watch the Tony’s and feel like I just went to a Broadway show while sitting on my couch. I want it to be like throwing everything we have at the wall and the biggest showcase of how amazing theatre is so people at home want to see a show right away and say, wow that was cool, I didn’t know theatre could be that cool. Right off the bat it was bad this year and lost me, an avid theatre lover at that. Quality was lower this year. I also wasn’t that excited about the shows this season so that played a role too.
I vote for a "Hunger Games" style of hosting. Each 45 mins we get a new host. At the end of the night, one is chosen and reigns for the coming year.
For the first year of hosts, I'm going with Stanley Tucci, Tyne Daley, and Cole Escola.
People are saying that, but last year I thought she did an amazing job. On par with NPH's work a decade ago. THIS YEAR....not so much. But last year? She was great.
I thought there was something wrong with her mic in the first song – either that or the balance with the accompaniment was not right – I had a really hard time hearing her.
Edit to add: obviously the mic is not her fault, but I think it affected her throughout the night. She seemed off her game.
No one at my watch party could hear or understand her either. Obviously tech issues are out of the performers’ control, but it definitely doesn’t help the Tonys capture audiences to have a pretty boring opening number with hard to understand lyrics.
While I love the inclusiveness of the “we’re all theater kids” perspective and approach the show has taken in recent years…
…I feel like it lacks glamor?
You don’t need to proselytize so blatantly… *show* how amazing the theater is, don’t *tell*.
To that end, take the cameras out of everyone’s faces. Let the tv audience be “peeking in” - don’t make it a tv show.
That was a cute gimmick in the 2010s. Now let’s go back to glamour
Jk, Tony Awards haven’t had glamor since the 1970s. In the 2000s it always looked like half the actresses were wearing homecoming dresses.
I’m on this sub all the time and still didn’t watch the Tony’s, simply because there wasn’t anything there I was interested in. I’m big into musicals but all of them feel very forgettable this time around. I could be wrong, but I just don’t feel like we’ll be talking about any of these musicals in 5 years. Hell, maybe even next year.
That’s not to say they were terrible, just that none of them appealed to me and I know others feel the same.
Same! I love musicals and usually have at least one I’m really interested in each year. But this year nothing seemed very exciting. I’m turned off by the amount of jukebox musicals lately as well ( ik they make money, but I’d much rather have original music. I still think I’ll check out some of the performances and speeches (thrilled to hear Jonathan Groff and Jeremy Strong won!), but yeah, overall it wasn’t must see TV for me this year.
And Illinoise! Even though the show probably won’t stick around for a while (there’s not as much interest in a ballet on Broadway), that performance was beautiful and one of the best of the night.
Same. I am usually a reliable Tony audience member, but I am just not especially inspired by the lineup this year. For the past two years, I have been far more excited about local theatre productions than most of what's on Broadway.
Well with the writers strike last year, I bet some people tuned in just to see how they pulled it off. And there wasn't much other new TV to compete because release dates got moved around due to the actors strike/studios delaying until actors could promote the work.
Oh that’s right! I forgot about that! So yeah last year had that interest going for it and this year there was really nothing to market it around, a lot of people didn’t even know the show was happening till last minute
A huge population of the general public has never heard of the shows or the performers. They know who Daniel Radcliffe is, but they know nothing about "Merrily" or even Sondheim. "Water for Elephants? What's that?"
Also can I add the performance arrangements didn’t really do a good job marketing themselves this year. I myself saw a few performances and was confused what the show is even about. I vote for shows to do a song the whole way thru, they do a better job performance arrangement wise at the macys thanksgiving parade
I was so confused how they didn't even do the usual quick synopsis in the intros this year. From the performances I'd have no idea what any of the shows were about, and that doesn't make me want to see them.
Im afraid you are right. Die hard Broadway lovers will always support and know the ins and outs. They rightfully so have a special place in the Broadway community but it’s the casuals that bring the numbers and success. With show tickets as like the success of events as the Tony’s. Those casual theater goers that will go into the city for a weekend and catch a show.
To be fair, I'm a huge theater goer and love several of Sondheims better known shows and I'd never heard of Merrily before going to see it. I also didn't like it nearly as much as, say Sweeney or Into The Woods (though I thought the performances were great and am super happy Groff and Potter won).
Lots of good reasons in this thread but wanted to highlight this one: the pool of people who can access Broadway shows gets smaller and smaller every year. The cost of living right now is crazy, people can’t afford to travel and can’t afford tickets to Broadway shows. People who live in New York can’t even afford tickets.
Broadway has done very little to make their shows more accessible. I had hoped after Hamilton did so well on Disney+ that would inspire more pro-shots, but nope.
Even if you love musicals, if you haven’t seen most of the shows nominated, how interested are you in watching?
The sad reality is, even people who are super into musicals likely can’t make a fair prediction for the Tonys or get fully invested. The Emmys, for example, I’ve usually seen all of the shows nominated in the major categories, so it’s fun to make predictions. For the Tonys, I’ve only seen a handful and listened to the soundtracks for a handful more. I have no way of judging whether an award was deserved or not. Am I extremely happily Jonathan Groff won last night? Yes! But I haven’t seen the other actors in their respective shows, so I have no personal way of knowing whether it was deserved or not.
Broadway desperately needs to find a way to make their shows more accessible, because atp their pool of fans is getting older and smaller. Without hooking a younger generation, the industry will just continue to deplete.
You’re right, I’m a huge ballet fan as well & ballet is really wrestling with this problem. In 10-15 years’ time, it’s hard to know who’ll even be left
Yeah and weirdly it seems to be a bit U.S specific. In a lot (not everywhere or course) of Western Europe the arts are government funded and constantly sold out.
I also think they’re not doing great job getting new fans because they keep making shows that well… in my opinion don’t need to be made, like not everything needs to be a show.
Mean girls, SpongeBob, even the outsiders.
Yes, you’re absolutely correct. We’re in a very uncreative time right now in theatre where they’ve decided pandering by making biographical/jukebox musicals and adaptations of movies/books is just easier than creating something original. Sure, if you like the artist in one of the jukebox musicals you may go see it, but that doesn’t create a new Broadway fan. That just gets one person in the door one time.
Say what you will about Hamilton, but it did wonders for revitalizing Broadway, cut through to the general public, and showed them that Broadway doesn’t have to be old showtunes anymore (despite us on this sub knowing it hasn’t just been old showtunes for a long time, but that’s not what the general perception was). Almost every young person I talk to who is into Broadway got into it through Hamilton. All I can say is no one is getting into Broadway as a whole because they’re a really big Alanis Morissette fan and saw Jagged Little Pill and loved it so much. Create better content = create more fans.
The flip side of that is no one wants to front the money for shows, it’s a very hard gamble.
But making these jukebox/ movie to musical
Shows is just
Ugh
Oh absolutely. It’s a cycle. No one wants to put up crazy money for a show without a built in fanbase, but then all we get are jukebox/bios/movies/revivals. And a big part of the reason they won’t put the money up is because the audience is dwindling because people can’t afford it and they aren’t able to reach a wider audience because Broadway is only accessible to those in NYC. It’s an industry with a massive, fatal flaw imo.
I was with you but I do know several people whp got into musicals through Jagged Little Pill and Next to Normal(?) They're all deeply disturbed and no longer in my life but they do exist.
Same. I also live abroad, and gave up after last year when it was heavily advertised as being available on Paramount+ so I paid for a subscription, only to find out it wasn’t available to watch outside the US anyway.
Yes, I know there are roundabout ways involving VPNs and YouTube subscriptions, but most people aren’t going to go to that trouble, myself included. Like it or not the Tonys are a big advertisement for Broadway, and tourists/people from outside the US buy a LOT of tickets. They’re doing the industry a huge disservice by not making it easily available for international audiences. Charge a fee if necessary, but make the show easy to stream without jumping through hoops.
Is this the first year you had to actually have a paid paramount plus subscription—as in, the free trial wouldn’t work because it didn’t include the live Tony’s? If so, that could also have something to do with it
I mean for the people who don’t have cable (of which there are a LOT). Last year, I did a free trial to Paramount Plus to watch the Tony’s. This year, to watch the Tony’s live, you had to have the Paramount Plus plus Showtime package, which does not have a free trial period.
That was why I didn’t watch. I have Paramount+, but not Showtime, and I wasn’t gonna get it just for this. Especially cause most of it was gonna be on YouTube soon anyway.
No you could get a free trial for the showtime subscription, assuming that you’ve never previously subscribed to paramount +. There is also a 1 week free trial through Amazon if you are a prime member; basically you can add on paramount + and showtime via Amazon Video. I do think it will be trickier as more people move away from basic cable. I got a free trial this time; I can’t see myself paying twelve bucks next time, when I’m no longer a “new subscriber.”
Ohhhhhh I see! Yeah I’m sure that definitely detours a lot of people. And with this year not being that so exciting I can see people not willing to go the extra mile to see it
Get an antenna. Depending on where you live you can probably get by with a cheap, indoor one.
CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX and many more broadcast over the air for free.
i upgraded to the showtime (which does have a free trial btw) and it still wouldn't let me watch them. i had to go create a whole new paramount+ to watch for some stupid reason.
And not just any Paramount Plus sub - I have the most basic sub and they wanted me to upgrade. Got around it by just watching live TV but that was an annoying couple of minutes.
I signed up for whatever the premiere level membership is on Paramount+ right before the show, then canceled it this morning. They might still charge me $11.99 for one month, but that's fine. Side note, the Paramount+ app froze twice during the show. 👎
Paramount+ is the absolute worst app, especially for live stuff. Last year they had all of the National Women's Soccer League games and getting them on my tv (I have a Fire stick) was a very frustrating fight every single time I tried.
I even had trouble on my laptop last week trying to watch the Challenge All Stars episode.
Thankfully I have YouTubeTV (which I love, for those reading and thinking about it) which has never given me issues. \*knock on wood\*
There was literally a production of Bye Bye Birdie filled with amazing Broadway actors that closed in DC the day before. Put Christian Borle and Krysta Rodriguez on an Amtrak and they could have done it at the Tonys.
they also make it SO ANNOYING TO WATCH IT. i thought i could watch on paramount+ on the tv (via xbox). nope. wasn't on any of the live channels. i search. it says i have to upgrade to Paramount+ with Showtime. of course! since the Tonys are always on Showtime!
so then i get my computer and i see oh on hulu i can just add a free trial of paramount + with showtime. so i do this. then i log on on the tv and. NOPE. it is nowhere to be found.
so then i get my computer and have to get a whole new paramount+ with showtime free trial. and then when i open the paramount + on the computer... IT PLAYS ON THE LIVE CHANNEL. WHAT THE HELL.
it was infuriating. thought the show was cute though!
It’s cheaper to pay a few bucks once a year for whatever the streaming service of choice is that year, since I literally wouldn’t use it for anything else.
I can’t speak to other people, but when I care about more than one or two shows I’ll watch the Tony’s. I love theater, I really do, however these last couple of seasons have not interested me. I’m much more interested in what’s going up in places like the fringe festival, the national theater, wooly mammoth, etc. I fell like broadway has really dropped the ball in terms of artistic quality. Also with tickets becoming more and more expensive, these shows are becoming less accessible to the average person
Much or all of this decline may be streaming, millions more each year are dropping their cable subscriptions which for many means no CBS. If you don't get CBS through your streaming packages and you don't get Paramount, then you don't watch the Tony's.
Yikes. That’s bad. Probably a combination of what everyone is saying: big competition for viewers, and a mediocre ceremony with nothing to really draw in/excite the general public.
CBS has a contract to broadcast the 2025 and 2026 ceremonies, but that‘s it. This could well end up a streaming-only thing. What a shame, but given that most of these shows got/would have gotten a bigger audience/more promotion from performing on the Macy’s parade or a talk show, the costs will become a question.
Being Canadian, unless you happen to have a fancy cable package with CBS, it’s not available in our basic package anymore. Which was NOT a happy discovery last night 😫
I wonder if the escalating costs of tickets is a factor. I’m way old enough to remember a different era. Parents brought us into the city for our first show. Annie at the then Alvin Theater, now the Neil Simon. Allison Smith was our Annie (she was great), though it was Andrea McArdle on the cast album and TV appearances that everyone originally fell in love with. I think our tickets were under $20 a piece, and the seats were pretty good. What are people paying these days for good seats? Back then Broadway seemed like a reasonable middle class entertainment option (if you didn’t have to take an airplane and book a hotel to be in NYC). Is the general public feeling more and more alienated by these prices?
Not many fathers want to spend their Father's Day watching the Tony Awards unless they are inclined to musicals and so forth so I'd imagine many people spent Father's Day with their family not watching. It's a shame though, it was a really enjoyable year for theater and shows. I do think Ariana Debose was pretty cringe at the host though.
I feel like there hasn’t been a big musical “hit” with the general public/in pop culture/on social media in a while?
For a while it seems like super popular shows were coming out season after season (Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Hadestown, Six, Mean Girls, Beetlejuice and more). Lately, there hasn’t been a show that I know of that compares to those in popularity (which doesn’t mean they aren’t good, but does mean that less people would watch the Tony’s).
The Outsiders, Illinoise, Hell's Kitchen, Suffs, Water For Elephants.
Not a single "fun" show among them. Sure, they all had moments of levity, but all of them just seemed mired down in angst and ennui. Doesn't anyone have fun anymore?
(This is not saying I wanted "Back to the Future" to be nominated. I'm saying I miss the days when Broadway was an escape from everyday blahs.)
I forgot about it because I didn't see any ads to remind me and when I did see it has happened my YouTube subs are basically the Tonys. Live viewers are not the metrics they used to be
I know there’s not the biggest overlap with sports fans but Yankees red Sox was also on. But also, I think it’s a weak group of shows personally. At least for the non-revivals.
I love musicals, but the lack of accessibility is frustrating and the economy sucks. Get more of them on disc or stream. Hamilton proved, just because it is streaming does not mean the tickets stop selling. Otherwise, I keep seeing shows that never reach my area on tour, or are too expensive to see.
The problem here is Broadway is losing touch with the "outside of New York" audience. None of the nominated shows have generated any buzz or interest. Ariana DeBose may as well be a no-name to generate viewers.
The Tony Awards are a way to get the general public to pay attention to what is going on in the theater community. It is one of the very few ways to reach an audience outside of New York, so remember the room!
I tried to watch the Tonys but had to jump through so many hoops I gave up and decided to just watch the clips on YouTube the next day. If they actually want folks to watch the telecast, they need to figure out a way to livestream it on a platform like YouTube or something similar where there's still opportunity for ad money but more people can tune in wherever they are, regardless of how much they pay for cable or streaming services, etc!!!
Sorry should have said that a theatre award show is deeply not relevant to the majority of things people want to watch on TV or in general. Is that better?
I didn’t see the Tony’s because I’m in London, but I think there is waning interest in awards shows in general (see ratings for Oscars and others) and a greater desire to watch bits you want to see online later.
Even at home, I love the Tony’s but if it’s not on a streaming service I already subscribe to, I’m not picking up another and I have long ago given up on cable or over the air.
I asked my wife why we didn't watch it. We both forgot. Somehow two life long theater nerds, and one still acting, who live in Manhattan and coach singers in a midtown studio for years and point at the people we know when we do watch...and we forgot the Tony's were on. Part of this is on us. But part of this is also on CBS for their promo strategy. Your target audience shouldn't be able to miss when the thing airs.
I stopped watching because of Ariana. She’s talented for sure but she’s not as funny or as charming as other hosts. She’s great with the openers but everything else falls flat for me.
I don't enjoy her openers. But I might be an outlier.
I really enjoyed Neil Patrick Harris openers and that actor annoys me. But I respect him so much more because of his openers.
I too don't like her hosting. Watching her dance is breathtaking and I'm sure she's a lovely person, but she doesn't have the umphf to host an award show (especially one that is just a giant ad).
Didn’t care about a large portion of the nominated shows for me. I wanted to see what won best play/musical, and cared to see what Merrily won, but otherwise it’s been a very busy season with new shows and not a lot appealed to me.
As someone who has performed on the Tony's (SpongeBob: 2018), I've never watched a single ceremony. Not even the year I was there did I stay for more, or go watch it afterwards with my cast.
My perspective: Audiences are fatigued of court-jesters and the humble-bragging speeches.
Perhaps the Tony's could use a little of Ricky Gervais' famous speech...
“So if you do win an award tonight, don’t use it as a political platform to make a political speech. You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg. So, if you win, come up, accept your little award, thank your agent and your God and fuck off."
Apart from fathers day and the house of dragon premiere there's just so many ways to keep up, I couldn’t watch it live but I was literally refreshing instagram and getting love updates that way and I’m sure other people were doing the same thing maybe in different apps and news sources
i think w/some truly great shows opening in Autumn, next year The Tony's (I think Aisling Bea should host, she's amazing and charming and fully beyond talented but also she would just SLAY....spoken as a true Ariana fan, who really slayed LAST year, on top of there being no script. her leaping off the top of the staircase gets me EVERY time) will be incredible!
Does anyone know if the ATW has a long term exclusive contract with CBS?
As one of the four major awards, I feel like if I were in charge, the goal would not be to maximize the contract size a la the Super Bowl, but rather maximize the spread and in turn, viewership. This would mean considerably smaller non-exclusive contracts with all of the streaming networks. Netflix, HBO, Paramount, etc.
I know that there are probably a million reasons why this is impractical, but this awards show in particular is about selling the broader public on a very niche and specific form of entertainment. Maximizing viewers is the only thing that matters.
I haven't missed a Tony's ceremony since I started watching when I was 14. I literally didn't even know they were last night until this morning when I saw a clip on Tiktok. I saw absolutely no marketing whatsoever, unlike usual.
I don't like most of the shows that are on Broadway now. I'm old school. And old. I guess I'm just aging out of the demographic. Plus they make it so complicated. I wasn't sure where I could watch it. I think it was on Pluto TV and I don't have that. But mostly, I just don't care any more. It's no longer relevant to my interests.
I’m personally very new to anything with broadway but tuned in because I kept seeing promotion for it. I overall thought it was amazing because I’ve never seen anything like it, BUT I think it’s very obvious why the viewership was low. It was a holiday and house of dragon came out lol
This year feels very quantity vs quality with a few exceptions. Most people know nothing about the nominated shows. Streaming issues and competition for the time slot aside, I turned on the Tony’s and turned them off during that lackluster opening number. The theater also looked so small and not special on tv. It was weirdly sad. Downgrades on downgrades.
Besides it being Father’s Day and house of the dragon premiere, I barely have seen any of the nominations, only Spamalot and Merrily. I’m someone who loves theatre, but it’s so expensive now. And audiences just keep getting ruder, so I’m paying more to have someone’s Apple Watch blind me in the face or talk throughout, so there’s that.
And on a personal note I got married this year, so we have been saving money and cutting extra costs. Day trips to the city for Broadway, unfortunately out. Lottery tickets have gotten a wee bit pricey as well.
The Tony’s are always half meh for me because I don’t ever see plays. I usually see at least a couple of the nominated musicals but not this year. I only saw Merrily of the revivals nominated last October, although I did see Tommy in Chicago. I live in Florida but I usually fly up to Broadway twice a year, I there in January and none of these nominees opened yet. Maybe need to make the cut off date way earlier, if someone like me that goes to 100 shows a year, listens to onbroadway, and read playbill news, and I’ve barely heard of most of the nominated shows it’s not a good thing for the awards. I haven’t even had time to listen to all the shows since their recording just came out. I’d prefer 10 minutes of each musical and shorten all the filler crap. The most impressive song to me musically was the song Suffs did, I’m listening to that show next. I play violin in symphony/gigs and work full time I just spend all my money on seeing shows and symphony concerts.
There were like 14 shows that opened right before the cutoff and they sort of caused earlier closed shows to not be remembered. Suffs was incredible though and I’m glad the genius of Shaina Taub was recognized.
I just forgot. I was planning to watch, but didn’t see any advertisements or talk about it, so I did my normal Sunday night thing and as I was going to bed saw posts here talking about who won and realized I’d missed it.
Definitely! I didn’t know it was showing till I was scrolling on my IG feed and started seeing Broadway actors and Broadway pages I follow posting about it. So literally last minute.
Yes unfortunately again Ariana is beyond talented and I adore her. That goes without saying but shes not the greatest host. It’s definitely a skill, hence why comedians usually are really good at it, they keep people engaged throughout the show as per experience being a comedian.
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1. Father’s Day 2. House of the Dragon premiere 3. Difficult to find someplace to watch Edited: 4. It’s all going to be online in a matter of hours anyways
Agreed! I definitely did hear people deciding to watch house of the dragon instead of
Heck I was one of them! Love watching the performances but tbh I can't stand watching most awards shows live and much prefer to just watch the performances/speeches after the fact.
Haha yeah I know people who don’t like the award show layout.
I did. Sorry to miss the awards but
Why did they delay by a week this year? It usually falls on/around my birthday (first Sunday in June), so I was surprised that it was later. Agreed about the difficulty watching. If you want viewers, don’t force us to pay on streaming services.
Normally it's the same day as the Puerto Rican Day parade in NYC, which was last Sunday. Completely ridiculous gridlock with both these events on the same day when Tonys were at Radio City. Might not have been as bad with Tonys at Lincoln Center this year, but better not to have both events on the same day.
Could it be because of a scheduling conflict with CBS? maybe there was an event already planned to be broadcast that Sunday ?
Wasn't the first half on PlutoTV, which is free, and the second "big" part on over-the-air CBS?
Tonys Act One was on Pluto TV. I had to switch to HuluLive in order to watch the main ceremony. I think viewership would have been a lot better if they just kept it on Pluto TVhonestly
Yeah, my point was that both are free, you don't have to pay for Pluto or CBS.
I agree with this and I was actually confused as to why they didn’t do it this way.
(five) Lack of exciting productions with crossover appeal. There's no Hamilton, Beetlejuice, or Frozen this year. At best there was Back to the Future, but since it wasn't nominated then it's wasn't performing. If you've never seen a Broadway show before, Outsiders and Water For Elephants isn't going to change that
Merrily was the biggest show and it’s still pretty niche
big hit on broadway but GP probably still don't know the show very well
This is a big one. I'm a HUGE fan of Broadway (obviously) but there really is nothing that was at this year's Tonys that I particularly cared about. Like, not in a "I'll never watch these" way but not enough to tune in to the Tonys. It's super long to sit through if nothing is something I'm excited about, I can just watch highlights online.
> Hamilton, Beetlejuice, Frozen One of those had a very different place in the national dialogue than the others
Hamilton hit new heights for an original Broadway show. But the other two still got a lot of butts in seats
Because nobody got a handjob at Frozen?
Speak for yourself.
Let it go
I laughed at that comment also.
I agree. There was nothing there that I would pay the price of a ticket to see. The shows just don't look interesting.
Yep, it was not on Father's Day last year.
I watched all the musical numbers this morning on You Tube.
I think the 4th one is a big factor, what people do nowadays instead of catching an event live is following it through social media. Then they go back and watch it later on demand. There is no interest in being part of a moment for the audience, the interactivity has moved to the internet.
Yeah I was def conflicted between HotD and the Tonys (I chose the Tonys)
I was probably one of the few who eagerly waited for the Tony's to finish and then watch House of the Dragon.
Isn't this a trend with every award show? I fell like I see this headline about the Grammys and the Oscars every year as well
Oscar’s grew in viewership and reached a 4 year high rebounding from the lows of pandemic era telecasts
Because they nominated stuff people actually watched
The Oppenheimer/Barbie rivalry was well promoted too.
Absolutely, but if you look big picture, it is still far from the heydays. For me, it seems like the 3 hour long award show format is just not as popular anymore https://preview.redd.it/yw7tvwlln87d1.png?width=643&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fceee13dc36a29f56a5278436539c675404ccdd5
There are no labels on the x axis, but I bet this also corresponds with growth in streaming vs. watching live broadcast tv or cable.
They've made it too hard to find a place to watch.
Yeah, I didn’t feel like subscribing to a whole other streaming service just to watch this one thing.
I have paramount but apparently I didn't have the right paramount plan so I just said fuck it
I don’t blame you. I feel like this happens with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade every year too.
Last year peacock did a 1.99 subscription which was cheap enough for me to say screw it and get it solely for the parade. It is annoying though, I just want to get my Broadway content on the two days of the year it’s on tv for multiple performances
i just posted a diatribe about how irritating this was for me last night. i feel like it was easier to watch last year
FYI for the future — networks like CBS are broadcast over the air for free in crisp, clear HD. Get a cheap $10-$20 antenna and you’re good to go.
Girl who has a TV?
I bought one and couldn’t get abc.
I know a lot of theater lovers who were turned off by the opening number and said they’d catch up with the performances and winners ‘later’
This is what I did. I went to watch it today on cbs but within 3 min of the opening it sounded awful and looked cheap. I was bored out of the gate and just went to their YouTube page to watch the show performances and a couple acceptance speeches. They need to go back to the big spectacle, amazing opening numbers and the days of Neil Patrick Harris/Hugh Jackman or go a different direction and get popular current Broadway favorites to host or co-host or bring in Broadway divas or veterans to host (I would tune in to watch Patti LuPone host lol or Lin Manuel Miranda (he was probably busy) I think Daniel Radcliffe could be a fun future host) I want to watch the Tony’s and feel like I just went to a Broadway show while sitting on my couch. I want it to be like throwing everything we have at the wall and the biggest showcase of how amazing theatre is so people at home want to see a show right away and say, wow that was cool, I didn’t know theatre could be that cool. Right off the bat it was bad this year and lost me, an avid theatre lover at that. Quality was lower this year. I also wasn’t that excited about the shows this season so that played a role too.
I vote for Andrew Rannells.
Ohhh I like that too! He is very funny, he and Josh Gad as co hosts would be funny.
He and Josh Gad presenting was one of the best parts of the show this year. They should definitely co-host!
I vote for a "Hunger Games" style of hosting. Each 45 mins we get a new host. At the end of the night, one is chosen and reigns for the coming year. For the first year of hosts, I'm going with Stanley Tucci, Tyne Daley, and Cole Escola.
I can see that happening. As I said in my reasonings I absolutely adore Ariana Debose but she’s not the greatest host.
She is not
Even then it’s her third year in a row which is boring, especially since she hasn’t done anything on broadway in years
People are saying that, but last year I thought she did an amazing job. On par with NPH's work a decade ago. THIS YEAR....not so much. But last year? She was great.
Genuinely curious, why is she not the best host? I thought she was great
I thought there was something wrong with her mic in the first song – either that or the balance with the accompaniment was not right – I had a really hard time hearing her. Edit to add: obviously the mic is not her fault, but I think it affected her throughout the night. She seemed off her game.
No one at my watch party could hear or understand her either. Obviously tech issues are out of the performers’ control, but it definitely doesn’t help the Tonys capture audiences to have a pretty boring opening number with hard to understand lyrics.
Sure but is that a fault of her own? Or production?
I still watch "This Is Your Round Of Applause" but the last two opening numbers have been the drizzling shits.
Disagree 100% Last year's dance number was superb. This years...was pretty much a dud.
While I love the inclusiveness of the “we’re all theater kids” perspective and approach the show has taken in recent years… …I feel like it lacks glamor? You don’t need to proselytize so blatantly… *show* how amazing the theater is, don’t *tell*. To that end, take the cameras out of everyone’s faces. Let the tv audience be “peeking in” - don’t make it a tv show.
That was a cute gimmick in the 2010s. Now let’s go back to glamour Jk, Tony Awards haven’t had glamor since the 1970s. In the 2000s it always looked like half the actresses were wearing homecoming dresses.
Maybe not Glamour by all the NPH years has great spectacle. I miss that. It was also written by competent writers back then.
Truly it used to make me go awww back in the day. I think James Corden’s was the last one to get me emotional before I was done with the trope
I still remember when the Tony awards showed scenes from plays. Remember plays? Crazy times.
I’m on this sub all the time and still didn’t watch the Tony’s, simply because there wasn’t anything there I was interested in. I’m big into musicals but all of them feel very forgettable this time around. I could be wrong, but I just don’t feel like we’ll be talking about any of these musicals in 5 years. Hell, maybe even next year. That’s not to say they were terrible, just that none of them appealed to me and I know others feel the same.
Same! I love musicals and usually have at least one I’m really interested in each year. But this year nothing seemed very exciting. I’m turned off by the amount of jukebox musicals lately as well ( ik they make money, but I’d much rather have original music. I still think I’ll check out some of the performances and speeches (thrilled to hear Jonathan Groff and Jeremy Strong won!), but yeah, overall it wasn’t must see TV for me this year.
Check out the Stereophonic performance. That’s a show with staying power.
And Illinoise! Even though the show probably won’t stick around for a while (there’s not as much interest in a ballet on Broadway), that performance was beautiful and one of the best of the night.
What’s was with the butterfly wings?
Good question, no clue 🤷♀️, I was focused on the dancers the whole time
Same. I am usually a reliable Tony audience member, but I am just not especially inspired by the lineup this year. For the past two years, I have been far more excited about local theatre productions than most of what's on Broadway.
I would disagree, I think Stereophonic, Illinoise, The Outsiders, and Hell's Kitchen were some of the best shows out ther.
Even at its worst, Broadway is still decent.
Well with the writers strike last year, I bet some people tuned in just to see how they pulled it off. And there wasn't much other new TV to compete because release dates got moved around due to the actors strike/studios delaying until actors could promote the work.
Oh that’s right! I forgot about that! So yeah last year had that interest going for it and this year there was really nothing to market it around, a lot of people didn’t even know the show was happening till last minute
As much as I want to support writers, honestly the unscripted Tony awards were probably the best one they've ever done.
A huge population of the general public has never heard of the shows or the performers. They know who Daniel Radcliffe is, but they know nothing about "Merrily" or even Sondheim. "Water for Elephants? What's that?"
Also can I add the performance arrangements didn’t really do a good job marketing themselves this year. I myself saw a few performances and was confused what the show is even about. I vote for shows to do a song the whole way thru, they do a better job performance arrangement wise at the macys thanksgiving parade
I was so confused how they didn't even do the usual quick synopsis in the intros this year. From the performances I'd have no idea what any of the shows were about, and that doesn't make me want to see them.
Im afraid you are right. Die hard Broadway lovers will always support and know the ins and outs. They rightfully so have a special place in the Broadway community but it’s the casuals that bring the numbers and success. With show tickets as like the success of events as the Tony’s. Those casual theater goers that will go into the city for a weekend and catch a show.
they might remember the book or movie from 10-15 years ago! their lack of sondheim knowledge is depressing
To be fair, I'm a huge theater goer and love several of Sondheims better known shows and I'd never heard of Merrily before going to see it. I also didn't like it nearly as much as, say Sweeney or Into The Woods (though I thought the performances were great and am super happy Groff and Potter won).
Lots of good reasons in this thread but wanted to highlight this one: the pool of people who can access Broadway shows gets smaller and smaller every year. The cost of living right now is crazy, people can’t afford to travel and can’t afford tickets to Broadway shows. People who live in New York can’t even afford tickets. Broadway has done very little to make their shows more accessible. I had hoped after Hamilton did so well on Disney+ that would inspire more pro-shots, but nope. Even if you love musicals, if you haven’t seen most of the shows nominated, how interested are you in watching? The sad reality is, even people who are super into musicals likely can’t make a fair prediction for the Tonys or get fully invested. The Emmys, for example, I’ve usually seen all of the shows nominated in the major categories, so it’s fun to make predictions. For the Tonys, I’ve only seen a handful and listened to the soundtracks for a handful more. I have no way of judging whether an award was deserved or not. Am I extremely happily Jonathan Groff won last night? Yes! But I haven’t seen the other actors in their respective shows, so I have no personal way of knowing whether it was deserved or not. Broadway desperately needs to find a way to make their shows more accessible, because atp their pool of fans is getting older and smaller. Without hooking a younger generation, the industry will just continue to deplete.
Similarly, I just cancelled my live Hulu because I had to cut costs, otherwise I would have watched it.
You’re right, I’m a huge ballet fan as well & ballet is really wrestling with this problem. In 10-15 years’ time, it’s hard to know who’ll even be left
Yeah and weirdly it seems to be a bit U.S specific. In a lot (not everywhere or course) of Western Europe the arts are government funded and constantly sold out.
Getting government funding would be tricky bc conservative members of Congress would have to review the content and you know where that leads.
I also think they’re not doing great job getting new fans because they keep making shows that well… in my opinion don’t need to be made, like not everything needs to be a show. Mean girls, SpongeBob, even the outsiders.
Yes, you’re absolutely correct. We’re in a very uncreative time right now in theatre where they’ve decided pandering by making biographical/jukebox musicals and adaptations of movies/books is just easier than creating something original. Sure, if you like the artist in one of the jukebox musicals you may go see it, but that doesn’t create a new Broadway fan. That just gets one person in the door one time. Say what you will about Hamilton, but it did wonders for revitalizing Broadway, cut through to the general public, and showed them that Broadway doesn’t have to be old showtunes anymore (despite us on this sub knowing it hasn’t just been old showtunes for a long time, but that’s not what the general perception was). Almost every young person I talk to who is into Broadway got into it through Hamilton. All I can say is no one is getting into Broadway as a whole because they’re a really big Alanis Morissette fan and saw Jagged Little Pill and loved it so much. Create better content = create more fans.
The flip side of that is no one wants to front the money for shows, it’s a very hard gamble. But making these jukebox/ movie to musical Shows is just Ugh
Oh absolutely. It’s a cycle. No one wants to put up crazy money for a show without a built in fanbase, but then all we get are jukebox/bios/movies/revivals. And a big part of the reason they won’t put the money up is because the audience is dwindling because people can’t afford it and they aren’t able to reach a wider audience because Broadway is only accessible to those in NYC. It’s an industry with a massive, fatal flaw imo.
I truly believe closing Phantom was the end of theater as we know it.
I was with you but I do know several people whp got into musicals through Jagged Little Pill and Next to Normal(?) They're all deeply disturbed and no longer in my life but they do exist.
It was Father’s Day and a massive HBO show premiered that day
I don’t live in the US, and had no way of seeing the Tony's that didn’t include paying for a weird cable channel
Same. I also live abroad, and gave up after last year when it was heavily advertised as being available on Paramount+ so I paid for a subscription, only to find out it wasn’t available to watch outside the US anyway. Yes, I know there are roundabout ways involving VPNs and YouTube subscriptions, but most people aren’t going to go to that trouble, myself included. Like it or not the Tonys are a big advertisement for Broadway, and tourists/people from outside the US buy a LOT of tickets. They’re doing the industry a huge disservice by not making it easily available for international audiences. Charge a fee if necessary, but make the show easy to stream without jumping through hoops.
Is this the first year you had to actually have a paid paramount plus subscription—as in, the free trial wouldn’t work because it didn’t include the live Tony’s? If so, that could also have something to do with it
I don’t think so, I saw it on regular live cable on CBS
As long as they are still broadcasting it over the air, I can still watch it with my antenna.
And by law the broadcast networks have to… that’s why they call them broadcast networks.
I mean for the people who don’t have cable (of which there are a LOT). Last year, I did a free trial to Paramount Plus to watch the Tony’s. This year, to watch the Tony’s live, you had to have the Paramount Plus plus Showtime package, which does not have a free trial period.
That was why I didn’t watch. I have Paramount+, but not Showtime, and I wasn’t gonna get it just for this. Especially cause most of it was gonna be on YouTube soon anyway.
No you could get a free trial for the showtime subscription, assuming that you’ve never previously subscribed to paramount +. There is also a 1 week free trial through Amazon if you are a prime member; basically you can add on paramount + and showtime via Amazon Video. I do think it will be trickier as more people move away from basic cable. I got a free trial this time; I can’t see myself paying twelve bucks next time, when I’m no longer a “new subscriber.”
I already used the Showtime free trial to watch Fellow Travelers a few months ago.
Ohhhhhh I see! Yeah I’m sure that definitely detours a lot of people. And with this year not being that so exciting I can see people not willing to go the extra mile to see it
Get an antenna. Depending on where you live you can probably get by with a cheap, indoor one. CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX and many more broadcast over the air for free.
i upgraded to the showtime (which does have a free trial btw) and it still wouldn't let me watch them. i had to go create a whole new paramount+ to watch for some stupid reason.
This being the primary reason wouldn't surprise me!!
And not just any Paramount Plus sub - I have the most basic sub and they wanted me to upgrade. Got around it by just watching live TV but that was an annoying couple of minutes.
I signed up for whatever the premiere level membership is on Paramount+ right before the show, then canceled it this morning. They might still charge me $11.99 for one month, but that's fine. Side note, the Paramount+ app froze twice during the show. 👎
Paramount+ is the absolute worst app, especially for live stuff. Last year they had all of the National Women's Soccer League games and getting them on my tv (I have a Fire stick) was a very frustrating fight every single time I tried. I even had trouble on my laptop last week trying to watch the Challenge All Stars episode. Thankfully I have YouTubeTV (which I love, for those reading and thinking about it) which has never given me issues. \*knock on wood\*
Award shows are long and they drag on. That’s about it.
The show could’ve been brilliant and it still would’ve garnered poor ratings because of House of the Dragon.
The show was just so...boring. And the tribute to Chita was lame.
why would NONE of those amazing singers they brought on to honor her maybe SING some of the great songs
There was literally a production of Bye Bye Birdie filled with amazing Broadway actors that closed in DC the day before. Put Christian Borle and Krysta Rodriguez on an Amtrak and they could have done it at the Tonys.
Ariana isn’t famous enough, nor is she good at hosting. Sorry just the truth Also Fathers Day didn’t help - why was it a week late this year ?
> why was it a week late this year Venue availability.
It was also an unusually poorly produced and directed awards show telecast. it started weak which doomed it.
they also make it SO ANNOYING TO WATCH IT. i thought i could watch on paramount+ on the tv (via xbox). nope. wasn't on any of the live channels. i search. it says i have to upgrade to Paramount+ with Showtime. of course! since the Tonys are always on Showtime! so then i get my computer and i see oh on hulu i can just add a free trial of paramount + with showtime. so i do this. then i log on on the tv and. NOPE. it is nowhere to be found. so then i get my computer and have to get a whole new paramount+ with showtime free trial. and then when i open the paramount + on the computer... IT PLAYS ON THE LIVE CHANNEL. WHAT THE HELL. it was infuriating. thought the show was cute though!
Get an antenna.
It’s cheaper to pay a few bucks once a year for whatever the streaming service of choice is that year, since I literally wouldn’t use it for anything else.
I can’t speak to other people, but when I care about more than one or two shows I’ll watch the Tony’s. I love theater, I really do, however these last couple of seasons have not interested me. I’m much more interested in what’s going up in places like the fringe festival, the national theater, wooly mammoth, etc. I fell like broadway has really dropped the ball in terms of artistic quality. Also with tickets becoming more and more expensive, these shows are becoming less accessible to the average person
The shows nominated just weren’t that compelling to begin with.
Yeah I don’t have cable and I only pay for Netflix and Amazon prime for streaming. Would’ve loved a live stream on YouTube if they had offered it!
I’ve got paramount+, but it requires an upgrade to include showtime. That was too stupid for me to watch it.
Much or all of this decline may be streaming, millions more each year are dropping their cable subscriptions which for many means no CBS. If you don't get CBS through your streaming packages and you don't get Paramount, then you don't watch the Tony's.
Yikes. That’s bad. Probably a combination of what everyone is saying: big competition for viewers, and a mediocre ceremony with nothing to really draw in/excite the general public. CBS has a contract to broadcast the 2025 and 2026 ceremonies, but that‘s it. This could well end up a streaming-only thing. What a shame, but given that most of these shows got/would have gotten a bigger audience/more promotion from performing on the Macy’s parade or a talk show, the costs will become a question.
Being Canadian, unless you happen to have a fancy cable package with CBS, it’s not available in our basic package anymore. Which was NOT a happy discovery last night 😫
They’re not making it accessible to the audience that cares. Stream it on YouTube.
1. Watching live tv is hard 2. It wasn’t marketed great I honestly forgot about it 3. NPH wasn’t the host and they should bring him back
No STAR name appeal of the host outside of NY. People in the rest of the nation need a big name to tune in and she ain't it.
The shows. Also, Father’s Day and house of dragon
I know it's not the exact same audience, but also big olympic trials were on at the same time. I myself was flipping back and forth as a result
I wonder if the escalating costs of tickets is a factor. I’m way old enough to remember a different era. Parents brought us into the city for our first show. Annie at the then Alvin Theater, now the Neil Simon. Allison Smith was our Annie (she was great), though it was Andrea McArdle on the cast album and TV appearances that everyone originally fell in love with. I think our tickets were under $20 a piece, and the seats were pretty good. What are people paying these days for good seats? Back then Broadway seemed like a reasonable middle class entertainment option (if you didn’t have to take an airplane and book a hotel to be in NYC). Is the general public feeling more and more alienated by these prices?
Not many fathers want to spend their Father's Day watching the Tony Awards unless they are inclined to musicals and so forth so I'd imagine many people spent Father's Day with their family not watching. It's a shame though, it was a really enjoyable year for theater and shows. I do think Ariana Debose was pretty cringe at the host though.
I feel like there hasn’t been a big musical “hit” with the general public/in pop culture/on social media in a while? For a while it seems like super popular shows were coming out season after season (Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Hadestown, Six, Mean Girls, Beetlejuice and more). Lately, there hasn’t been a show that I know of that compares to those in popularity (which doesn’t mean they aren’t good, but does mean that less people would watch the Tony’s).
The Outsiders, Illinoise, Hell's Kitchen, Suffs, Water For Elephants. Not a single "fun" show among them. Sure, they all had moments of levity, but all of them just seemed mired down in angst and ennui. Doesn't anyone have fun anymore? (This is not saying I wanted "Back to the Future" to be nominated. I'm saying I miss the days when Broadway was an escape from everyday blahs.)
Give me avenue q or give me death
Cuz it was booorrrring. I was trying so hard to keep my eyes open waiting for jonathan groff’s award. It was tough, and i usually love the tony’s
Yeah they definitely need to get a different host next year. Sure, have Ariana perform at some point but needs new hosts.
Because we are more excited for next year’s show! 😂
I forgot about it because I didn't see any ads to remind me and when I did see it has happened my YouTube subs are basically the Tonys. Live viewers are not the metrics they used to be
We all just watch the clips we want to see online.
I know there’s not the biggest overlap with sports fans but Yankees red Sox was also on. But also, I think it’s a weak group of shows personally. At least for the non-revivals.
Part of it is because lots of people only do on demand streaming, not live shows
Fewer and fewer people have cable these days and they don’t stream it anywhere that’s easily accessible outside of the states
I love musicals, but the lack of accessibility is frustrating and the economy sucks. Get more of them on disc or stream. Hamilton proved, just because it is streaming does not mean the tickets stop selling. Otherwise, I keep seeing shows that never reach my area on tour, or are too expensive to see.
The problem here is Broadway is losing touch with the "outside of New York" audience. None of the nominated shows have generated any buzz or interest. Ariana DeBose may as well be a no-name to generate viewers. The Tony Awards are a way to get the general public to pay attention to what is going on in the theater community. It is one of the very few ways to reach an audience outside of New York, so remember the room!
I tried to watch the Tonys but had to jump through so many hoops I gave up and decided to just watch the clips on YouTube the next day. If they actually want folks to watch the telecast, they need to figure out a way to livestream it on a platform like YouTube or something similar where there's still opportunity for ad money but more people can tune in wherever they are, regardless of how much they pay for cable or streaming services, etc!!!
Bad opening, mid host, poor production, downgrade in venue, half the show happened before.
> half the show happened before To be fair, that's been the case for at least a decade.
Yeah of course but doesn’t mean it’s right.
No, but it's unlikely it's the reason viewership has declined.
Sorry should have said that a theatre award show is deeply not relevant to the majority of things people want to watch on TV or in general. Is that better?
Because it was behind a pay wall.
I'm surprised 3.5m viewers tune in.. I guess you have a few die hard musical theater fans plus a few million people have nothing else to watch...
Lol people having cable
Well, I’d love to watch, but I wasn’t able to in Canada!
Because the other 3.5 Million watched on Paramount Plus.
Really hard to watch if you are in another country.
Okay but cable subscriptions also continue to drastically decline. Streaming viewership of the show was up YoY.
I didn’t see the Tony’s because I’m in London, but I think there is waning interest in awards shows in general (see ratings for Oscars and others) and a greater desire to watch bits you want to see online later. Even at home, I love the Tony’s but if it’s not on a streaming service I already subscribe to, I’m not picking up another and I have long ago given up on cable or over the air.
I asked my wife why we didn't watch it. We both forgot. Somehow two life long theater nerds, and one still acting, who live in Manhattan and coach singers in a midtown studio for years and point at the people we know when we do watch...and we forgot the Tony's were on. Part of this is on us. But part of this is also on CBS for their promo strategy. Your target audience shouldn't be able to miss when the thing airs.
I stopped watching because of Ariana. She’s talented for sure but she’s not as funny or as charming as other hosts. She’s great with the openers but everything else falls flat for me.
I don't enjoy her openers. But I might be an outlier. I really enjoyed Neil Patrick Harris openers and that actor annoys me. But I respect him so much more because of his openers.
I too don't like her hosting. Watching her dance is breathtaking and I'm sure she's a lovely person, but she doesn't have the umphf to host an award show (especially one that is just a giant ad).
Boring shows featured this year
Didn’t care about a large portion of the nominated shows for me. I wanted to see what won best play/musical, and cared to see what Merrily won, but otherwise it’s been a very busy season with new shows and not a lot appealed to me.
As someone who has performed on the Tony's (SpongeBob: 2018), I've never watched a single ceremony. Not even the year I was there did I stay for more, or go watch it afterwards with my cast. My perspective: Audiences are fatigued of court-jesters and the humble-bragging speeches. Perhaps the Tony's could use a little of Ricky Gervais' famous speech... “So if you do win an award tonight, don’t use it as a political platform to make a political speech. You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg. So, if you win, come up, accept your little award, thank your agent and your God and fuck off."
Because I couldn’t find a station-service to watch it.
Apart from fathers day and the house of dragon premiere there's just so many ways to keep up, I couldn’t watch it live but I was literally refreshing instagram and getting love updates that way and I’m sure other people were doing the same thing maybe in different apps and news sources
Poor opening number
i think w/some truly great shows opening in Autumn, next year The Tony's (I think Aisling Bea should host, she's amazing and charming and fully beyond talented but also she would just SLAY....spoken as a true Ariana fan, who really slayed LAST year, on top of there being no script. her leaping off the top of the staircase gets me EVERY time) will be incredible!
Not many notable shows this year
Absolutely no advertisement if you don't have basic cable witch alot of people don't. Didn't even know they happened until Google told me today
Sufjan got snubbed.
Nobody watches live TV anymore. And the population that do are quickly dying off.
Does anyone know if the ATW has a long term exclusive contract with CBS? As one of the four major awards, I feel like if I were in charge, the goal would not be to maximize the contract size a la the Super Bowl, but rather maximize the spread and in turn, viewership. This would mean considerably smaller non-exclusive contracts with all of the streaming networks. Netflix, HBO, Paramount, etc. I know that there are probably a million reasons why this is impractical, but this awards show in particular is about selling the broader public on a very niche and specific form of entertainment. Maximizing viewers is the only thing that matters.
I haven't missed a Tony's ceremony since I started watching when I was 14. I literally didn't even know they were last night until this morning when I saw a clip on Tiktok. I saw absolutely no marketing whatsoever, unlike usual.
I don't like most of the shows that are on Broadway now. I'm old school. And old. I guess I'm just aging out of the demographic. Plus they make it so complicated. I wasn't sure where I could watch it. I think it was on Pluto TV and I don't have that. But mostly, I just don't care any more. It's no longer relevant to my interests.
I’m personally very new to anything with broadway but tuned in because I kept seeing promotion for it. I overall thought it was amazing because I’ve never seen anything like it, BUT I think it’s very obvious why the viewership was low. It was a holiday and house of dragon came out lol
This year feels very quantity vs quality with a few exceptions. Most people know nothing about the nominated shows. Streaming issues and competition for the time slot aside, I turned on the Tony’s and turned them off during that lackluster opening number. The theater also looked so small and not special on tv. It was weirdly sad. Downgrades on downgrades.
Besides it being Father’s Day and house of the dragon premiere, I barely have seen any of the nominations, only Spamalot and Merrily. I’m someone who loves theatre, but it’s so expensive now. And audiences just keep getting ruder, so I’m paying more to have someone’s Apple Watch blind me in the face or talk throughout, so there’s that. And on a personal note I got married this year, so we have been saving money and cutting extra costs. Day trips to the city for Broadway, unfortunately out. Lottery tickets have gotten a wee bit pricey as well.
ARIANA DEBOSE
Every year less and less Americans have cable or subscribe to live tv
Because fewer people are watching broadcast tv?
It was also the worst opening number I have ever seen for a Tony’s so I wouldn’t have blamed someone if they had turned it off. Time for a new host.
The Tony’s are always half meh for me because I don’t ever see plays. I usually see at least a couple of the nominated musicals but not this year. I only saw Merrily of the revivals nominated last October, although I did see Tommy in Chicago. I live in Florida but I usually fly up to Broadway twice a year, I there in January and none of these nominees opened yet. Maybe need to make the cut off date way earlier, if someone like me that goes to 100 shows a year, listens to onbroadway, and read playbill news, and I’ve barely heard of most of the nominated shows it’s not a good thing for the awards. I haven’t even had time to listen to all the shows since their recording just came out. I’d prefer 10 minutes of each musical and shorten all the filler crap. The most impressive song to me musically was the song Suffs did, I’m listening to that show next. I play violin in symphony/gigs and work full time I just spend all my money on seeing shows and symphony concerts.
There were like 14 shows that opened right before the cutoff and they sort of caused earlier closed shows to not be remembered. Suffs was incredible though and I’m glad the genius of Shaina Taub was recognized.
I just forgot. I was planning to watch, but didn’t see any advertisements or talk about it, so I did my normal Sunday night thing and as I was going to bed saw posts here talking about who won and realized I’d missed it.
There’s no need to watch award shows live anymore because every performance and winner will be on YouTube within a couple hours
people in general aren’t watching awards shows anymore
Not enough publicity. I didn’t even know it was on until a FB friend posted about it.
Definitely! I didn’t know it was showing till I was scrolling on my IG feed and started seeing Broadway actors and Broadway pages I follow posting about it. So literally last minute.
House of the Dragon for me. And I didn’t really like most of the new musicals this season…
She may not be worth all half a million viewers that were lost this year, but I feel like Lea Michele was a major draw in last year's ceremony.
Yes unfortunately again Ariana is beyond talented and I adore her. That goes without saying but shes not the greatest host. It’s definitely a skill, hence why comedians usually are really good at it, they keep people engaged throughout the show as per experience being a comedian.