Grammys Get Awful News as Michelle Obama's Appearance Could Have Actually Hurt Ratings
The entertainment elite likes to pretend they control the national culture, but it looks like America didn’t get the memo.
A star-studded Grammy Awards show this past Sunday didn’t stoop to last year’s level of anti-Trump ranting and “MeToo” lecturing, but an appearance from Michelle Obama made it clear that the left just can’t help mixing music and politics — with lukewarm results.
The former first lady and possible future candidate for the Democrats used to draw crowds, but like her husband, that influence seems to be waning. As Deadline reported, this year’s Grammys were a ratings nightmare among the show’s core demographic.
“The final numbers for the 61st annual Grammy Awards are in, and they include an all-time demo low for music’s biggest night,” the entertainment news magazine stated.
“The live CBS show drew a 5.6 rating in the adult 18-49 demographic,” the outlet continued. “That’s down just over 5% from last year’s previous demo low.”
That coveted 18 to 49 demographic is by far the most important for the music industry. After all, retirees in their 60s aren’t exactly rushing out to buy Nicki Minaj albums (not that they’re missing anything.)
The raw viewership numbers for the 2019 awards show were about even with last year, although the prime demographic tended to tune out. This year had “19.9 million total viewers, compared with 2018’s 19.8 million,” according to Deadline. That’s a statistically insignificant difference.
“Facing the competition of the midseason return of The Walking Dead on cable, the 2019 Grammys bucked the recent awards-show ratings trend to increase a tiny bit [less than one percent] from last year’s James Corden-hosted bash,” the magazine explained.
Yes, even undead zombies do better with viewers than Michelle Obama. Last year had its own “walking dead” appearance, too. We, of course, mean Hillary Clinton.
“The January 28, 2018 show, which saw a cameo by Hillary Clinton and more than its fair share of Donald Trump cage-rattling, went on to score a 5.9/21 rating among adults 18-49 and 19.81 million viewers, that metric the worst that the CBS-aired show had seen since 2009,” Deadline pointed out.
“Right now, it looks like last night’s Grammys are on the way to being the lowest rated ever as they fall beneath last year’s demo action,” it continued.
While there’s no way to directly connect the decline in ratings to Obama’s appearance, there is a clear trend over the last few years which elites still haven’t learned: Americans want their entertainment separate from their politics, and nobody likes being lectured.
The reality is that people are bombarded with political rants and vitriol on a daily basis. Social media is filled with hatred and name-calling, while a few minutes of watching the breathless talking heads on cable news is enough to make anyone want to live in a cave.
America had almost 30 years of Clinton controversies and now well over a decade of the Obamas. Do we really need them strutting around awards show stages all night, too?
Music and movies are supposed to be escapes from reality, a way to unwind, celebrate or relax, not yet another medium for partisan politics.
Until the elitists in Hollywood, Nashville and New York learn this, ratings will likely continue to slide … and they only have themselves to blame.
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