We got all excited about the Oscars having their worst ratings ever. But really– it was 25 million people. That’s a lot any way you cut it.
But on Saturday afternoon at 5pm, we had the Independent Spirit Awards on cable’s IFC Channel. They had most of the same stars, just without the songs. The Spirit Awards did feature the hilarious Nick Kroll and John Mulaney.
So who was watching? Basically, no one. According to showbuzzdaily.com, the Indie Spirit Awards didn’t finish in the top 150 cable shows for Saturday. The 150th show on the showbuzz list, “Sports Center Morning” on ESPN2, had 134,000 viewers.
As for the Spirit Awards, the 5pm broadcast had just 95,000 viewers. The rebroadcast at 10pm brought in just 63,000 people. I think more people watch the Yule log, or the test pattern. The worst part of the news is that for the live show, only 21,000 were in the key demo. At 10pm, it was about the same with 23,000.
This year, the Spirit Awards counted American Airlines, IFC, Jeep, Fiji Water and Piaget watches were the top sponsors. But I’m told that Piaget had actually scaled down from 2017 and may leave altogether. Film Independent may have trouble keeping sponsors for a show with no audience.