Antipathy toward award shows

Am I the only one in the world who is sick to death of awards and awards shows? The schedule I found indicates that this is the big month for awards, so that probably explains why they’ve flooded the news lately. But honestly, who cares?

Who among the general public, that is. Certainly the nominees and award recipients (and their agents) care. And their respective industries care. But I’ve no interest in watching them all pat each other on the back and pass around their awards to each other. (So … incestuous.) Who’s the best? Whose turn is it? Have we included enough minorities? (Did enough minorities participate in the first place?) Can we just increase the number of categories and/or awards to make sure all the deserving people (everybody?) get one? After all, participation trophies have been “in” for some time.

Boring, boring, boring. Ugh.

Many years ago I cared. But there weren’t as many awards shows to care about back in the Dark Ages. The Oscars were the biggie. In those days everybody went to the movies. We all talked about which one or ones were the best, and why. So we watched with rapt attention to see if our faves won. And we watched to see how our favorite stars dressed, too. Best movie, best dress, etc. Well, the male stars all looked alike because back then they all wore the same tux, but the dresses the women wore were spectacular. Real glamor, real class, real sophistication. Real Hollywood. (Has Hollywood ever really been real?)

It’s not like that anymore. Hasn’t been for quite a while. It seems like everybody gets an award these days. And many if not most of those awards go to people or productions I’ve never heard of (and couldn’t care less about). As for the clothes … well, anything goes. Outfits scarecely big enough to be called clothes at all. Women in pants, men in skirts. I suppose all that might be interesting, if that’s all there was. But of course it isn’t. We have to find it buried amid the music, the speeches, the comedy, the commentary, the crowd shots, and whatever else makes these shows drag on for hours.

For those of you who still care (anybody?), here’s a list I compiled after a very brief search. I don’t even know what half these awards are for:

2022 Awards

Jan. 9: Golden Globes
Jan. 15: Oscars Governors Awards*
Feb. 26: NAACP Image Award
Feb. 27: Screen Actors Guild Awards
March 6: Film Independent Spirit Awards
March 9: Costume Designers Guild Awards
March 12: DGA Awards
March 13: BAFTA Awards
March 13: Critics Choice Awards
March 19: PGA Awards
March 20: WGA Awards
March 27: Oscars 
April 3: Grammy Awards
April 11: CMA Awards
June 12: Tony Awards
Sept. 18: Emmy Awards

*Governors Awards: The Academy released a statement indicating the Governors Awards
will not be held in person on the originally announced date,
and that updated plans would be announced in the weeks ahead.

And that’s the end of my rant. If you want me, I’ll be playing video games (and you can send me an award if you want to).

Banner image: I think these are the four “big” awards, the EGOTs — Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony. A few people manage to win one of each.

19 thoughts on “Antipathy toward award shows

  1. With all the avenues of entertainment that are available these days, Hollywood’s obscene display is more irrelevant than ever. Characterizing it as antipathy is spot on. These overpaid individuals live on a different planet from us paycheck-to-paycheck schleps.

  2. There are of course many sports awards that presume to document who or what team is the best, but in every case it only means who won at a particular time. Still, they actually do inspire interesting efforts. As for others, I generally agree with you. Celebrity worship seems to be a permanent part of the human psyche. The Nobel awards are still very meaningful to me.

    1. I’ve nothing against awards for outstanding achievement in any field. But the self-congratulatory nature of entertainment awards is increasingly distasteful. You don’t see gaudy Nobel and Pulitzer award shows, for example.

  3. I loved the Tony broadcasts for the opportunities to see the Broadway casts performing nominated scenes & music; Emmy and Oscar ran off the rails for me. Now almost 3 years without tv and not missing celebrities at all. (OK, confession: i stream free old tv series and movies on a tablet when nothing at all else better to do – and enjoy trying to catch Denver 6PM news if near wifi)

    1. I never watched much more than the Oscars. Have never cared much for Broadway. I’m addicted to tv but don’t watch the Emmys — just check later to see who won. Can’t imagine going without tv … but I don’t get to live in the mountains like you do.

  4. Oh, my, you’ve also forgotten the CMA (Country Music Awards?) which seemingly come up not just once, but about six times a year! We don’t watch them either but I did watch an interesting talk this week by a local film critic who asserts that the Academy itself is fretting that no one seems to be watching, and are looking for ways to attract more viewers. I think they miss the point!

    1. LOL. They do miss the point, don’t they. Don’t know how I overlooked CMA. I do so (not) love country music. Still, it’s better than rap and hip hop, so I’ll add it for you. 🙂

... and that's my two cents