Teen Choice Awards ratings hit a new low for the second year in a row. This year’s Teen Choice Awards, which aired August 11 on FOX, were hosted by Pretty Little Liars’ Lucy Hale and YouTuber David Dobrik. The two-hour event boasted mainstream talent from some of the year’s biggest blockbusters, including Avengers: Endgame, Aladdin, After, and many, many more.
Created by producers Bob Bain and Michael Berg, the first annual Teen Choice Awards aired in 1990. Geared towards young adults, Teen Choice Awards found a happy medium between Nickelodeon’s Kids Choice Awards and MTV Movie & TV Awards, for a teen demographic. Winners are selected by popular vote and ballots are cast through Twitter and FOX’s website. Sans conveniently sized trophies, winners are granted custom-made surfboards. Broadcast live from Hermosa Beach, Teen Choice Awards 2019 was a big night for the TV series Riverdale, Avengers: Endgame, and Taylor Swift. Riverdale picked up four surfboard trophies, while Endgame snagged acting wins for Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johannson, and Josh Brolin. Swift received the inaugural Icon Award and took home a surfboard emblazoned with the star’s three cats.
However, despite featuring some of the biggest names in Hollywood, the event produced dismal ratings. According to THR, Teen Choice Awards viewership plummeted to an all-time low. Last year, 1 million viewers tuned in, with the preceding years averaging almost 2 million spectators. Fox’s broadcast on Sunday night mustered up a meager 722,000 viewers - which means the show’s ratings have chopped down more than half over the last couple years.
Waves of viewers may not have flocked to watch celebrities hold up their surfboards in triumph, but they were tuning in elsewhere. CBS’s Big Brother claimed the Sunday night rating’s throne for its 21st season with 4.7 million total viewers. NBC’s coverage of the U.S. Gymnastics Championships brought in 2.8 million viewers that watched with bated breath as Simone Biles became the first person ever to land a double-double dismount on the balance beam.
The Teen Choice Awards 2019 ratings further support the theory that award shows are officially fizzling out. The Oscars, Grammys, and Emmys have hit all-time ratings low in the past few years. Despite several changes to the telecasts, such as the Oscars going without a host, awards handed out during commercial breaks, and shortened acceptance speeches, networks have been hard-pressed to re-attract viewers. Audiences sign in to social media platforms to view highlights, instead of parking on the couch for a few hours to watch award broadcasts in their entirety. Despite its lack of popularity, the Teen Choice Awards 2019 still generated notable moments for those who tuned in.
Source: THR