Tonys nominated for lowest rated
Among TV’s torrent of awards shows, the yearly Tony telecast is historically a ratings also-ran.
In 2009, Broadway’s biggest night was seen by only 7.4 million people – though that was an uptick of 19 percent above the previous year, according to the Nielsen Co.
That was dwarfed by last year’s audiences for the not only the Oscars (24 million viewers), but the American Music Awards, the Golden Globes, the People’s Choice Awards, the Grammys, the Prime-Time Emmys and the MTV Video Music Awards.
Even the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards edged out the Tonys by some 200,000 fans of SpongeBob and electric-green slime.
The 64th Annual Tony Awards, honoring theater professionals for distinguished achievement on Broadway, will be broadcast tonight at 8 on CBS, originating live from Radio City Music Hall. It’s a glimpse into a realm of show-biz glamour that viewers seldom encounter.
Not that the Tonycast won’t feature faces recognized far beyond Shubert Alley. The host is Sean Hayes, who everyone knows from TV’s “Will & Grace” – and, as it happens, is a Tony nominee this year for best leading actor in a musical for “Promises, Promises.”
Musical performances from Tony-nominated revivals “La Cage aux Folles” with Kelsey Grammer and “A Little Night Music” with Catherine Zeta-Jones also are on the bill.
The telecast will feature a special presentation of Tony-nominated plays and play revivals with appearances by Denzel Washington and Viola Davis from “Fences,” Anthony LaPaglia and Tony Shalhoub from “Lend Me a Tenor,” and Liev Schrieber and Scarlett Johansson from “A View from the Bridge.”
Also scheduled to be on hand: “Glee” cast members Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison; Katie Holmes and Daniel Radcliffe; Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith; and the punk-rock band Green Day, whose 2004 best-selling album “American Idiot” was adapted into one of this year’s Tony-nominated musicals.
But star power can only get you so far in any awards show. Win-or-lose suspense is also part of the mix – typically.
So, sure, some Tonycast viewers will find themselves rooting for a favorite actor in a play, even sight unseen, thanks to that category’s robust field, packed with Washington, Schreiber, Alfred Molina (“Red”), Jude Law (“Hamlet”) and Christopher Walken (“A Behanding in Spokane”).
(Walken may even have some local fans thanks to his play’s title, though Spokane is only briefly mentioned as the place where his character grew up, and lost the hand in question.)
But few viewers will feel like they have a horse in the race for best play – waged between “In the Next Room (or the vibrator play),” “Next Fall,” “Red” and “Time Stands Still” – any more than there will be furious wagering across the country on which musical – “American Idiot,” “Memphis,” “Million Dollar Quartet” or “Fela!” – will score a statuette.
Unlike any other TV awards show, the Tonys reveal the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat to a home audience that’s acquainted with only a few of the plays, personalities and performances in contention.
Imagine an Oscarcast playing to a nation where the nominated films had only played in a handful of Times Square movie houses and nowhere else. Or a Grammy Awards show where none of the viewers had had a chance to hear the songs.
In a world awash with pop culture available any time on countless devices, who will be tuning in tonight to see Broadway go wide from its cozy theater district?