Despite the fact that that nationwide lockdowns and a pandemic have left Americans with more time to watch television, the 93rd Academy failed spectacularly, bringing in less than half the viewership of the previous years’ Oscars, which also set an all-time low viewership record.
Chadwick Boseman, the “Black Panther” actor who died in 2020 and was celebrated by leftists for his roles as powerful black characters in political films, also failed to receive any awards despite the fact that the Oscars rearranged the order of its award categories in a bid to celebrate a hoped-for Boseman Best Actor win.
The viewership of the Oscars has steadily declined in recent years due to the over-politicization of the ceremony, however, the event still drew in over 43 million viewers in 2014. By 2020, that number had plummeted nearly in half to 23 million.
2021, was by far the biggest failure the Academy Awards ceremony has experienced to date. A mere 9.8 million viewers tuned in to see the “pandemic edition” Oscars, despite Hollywood officials’ attempt to sell the event as a tribute to dead black power icon Chadwick Boseman, who was best known for playing the fictional Marvel character Black Panther.
Oscars viewership through the years
2014: 43.7 million
2015: 37.3 million
2016: 34.4 million
2017: 32.9 million
2018: 26.5 million
2019: 29.6 million
2020: 23.6 million
2021: 9.8 million— Morning Brew
(@MorningBrew) April 26, 2021
The Oscars order of awards typically features the “Best Actor” category as the last presentation, but the order was rearranged for the 2021 Oscars to build up hype for a Boseman win in a film called “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” The move fell flat when Anthony Hopkins won the award instead, prompting outrage from leftist activists accusing the ceremony of racism.
By contrast, the 2020 Oscars featured a Best Actor win by Joaquin Phoenix for his portrayal of the titular character in the critically acclaimed gamer film “Joker.”
Phoenix, an outspoken vegan activist, castigated Hollywood for its hypocrisy on environmental issues during his acceptance speech:
“There is no f***ing best actor,” Phoenix said before being muted on the NBC live broadcast. “It’s great to vote but sometimes we have to take that responsibility on ourselves and make changes and sacrifices in our own lives and I hope that we can do that we don’t have to take private jets to Palm Springs sometimes or back, please.”
NBC vigorously attempted to play Phoenix off the stage with loud music, but to no avail.
“It’s really nice that so many people come up and sent their well-wishes to but we have to do more than that, right?” the actor said. “Such a beautiful gesture and I am a, uh, I have not always been a virtuous man. I’m learning so much so many of you in this room have given me multiple opportunities to get it right.”
The actor added, “Contrary to popular belief, I don’t want to rock the boat. But the boat is f***ing rocked.”