Ratings for Monday night’s 70th Primetime Emmy Awards — peppered with racial jokes and jabs at conservatives — may signal an important shift in American viewing audience’s longtime enchantment with all things Hollywood.
“It fell flat, the whole evening,” said Fox News contributor and best-selling author of the “Will Wilder” series, Raymond Arroyo, on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” Tuesday night.
Arroyo described the show’s opening number, “We Solved It,” as “tone-deaf” and “odd.”
The bit was a tongue-in-cheek take on Hollywood’s attempts at ramping up inclusion and diversity in its material.
Co-host Michael Che’s highly controversial comment early in the show spurred further remarks from other award recipients, including Regina King and Thandie Newton.
Che said his mother didn’t like watching award shows because “the only white people that thank Jesus are Republicans and ex-crackheads.”
When actress Thandie Newton accepted her award for Outstanding Supporting Actress for her work in HBO’s “Westworld,” she said, “I don’t even believe in God, but I’m going to thank her tonight.”
“Thandie Newton … demonstrates how out of touch this community is with the viewers. You don’t disparage God and you don’t mention Jesus and politicize Him and mention crackheads,” said Arroyo.
Nielsen’s final numbers showed an all-time low for the three-hour program produced by Lorne Michaels.
Its 10.172 million viewers represented an 11 percent drop from last year’s all-time low.
Given its cheap shots against Christians and the unapologetic slamming of conservatism and of President Donald Trump, Americans are tuning out of — and turning away from — award shows like the Emmys. The same is true for other entertainment forms that have seen fit to leverage their platforms for pious pontificating on politics and social matters.
Lately, when Americans turn to sports, movies, or television for a much-needed break from constant immersion in political infighting, they see media figures who endlessly shame them and attack their beliefs.
If viewership numbers are a good indicator, it appears Americans have had quite enough of it.
Twitter user @DuncanMcClaren aptly summed up many conservatives’ feelings on Hollywood’s self-congratulatory lovefests.
He wrote, “Award shows are nothing more than #leftwing, #Marxist #Propaganda … folks in flyover country, the normal folks, the hated #Deplorables aren’t wanted and don’t watch.”
#Hollywood’s “latest middle finger to Middle America fell flat in flyover country, and may have contributed to the telecast's all-time low viewership.” #RepublicansAndCrackheads https://t.co/E6H015fWsq
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) September 18, 2018
Not only do they give awards to each other every other week but they politicize the events to a point that they’re unwatchable. We don’t need uneducated fools telling us how to think. My 2 cents
— Letty Singer (@lfantauzzi) September 19, 2018
It’s all bad if they bring in politics!!! We watch celebs & sports for entertainment to get away from politics & everyday stresses of life!! We don’t want to hear ppl trash our country in anyway or use your status to protest during the games!!
— Chrissy Berens (@ChristineBeren2) September 18, 2018
Check out the “Ingraham Angle” segment on the Emmys and Hollywood below:
Michele Blood is a Flemington, New Jersey-based freelance writer and a regular contributor to LifeZette.
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