Sunday, October 18, 2020

Turned off and tuned out: Hollywood and pro sports viewerships plummet

We’re not asking you to be conservative, just keep politics out of it.  If we want politics, we’ll tune to Fox News or MSNBC.  But if we go to a movie, or if we turn on a playoff game, we want to focus on sports, not politics, and certainly not your leftist worldview. 
TheStadiumBusiness

TRUMP PUTS FOCUS ON EMPTY SEATS AT NFL STADIUMS  . . . On Thursday, the San Francisco 49ers officially claimed an attendance of 70,000 for their game with the Chargers, despite TV viewers clearly being able to see that the stadium was largely empty.

"Some of the best seats in the lower bowl at Levi’s Stadium were left untaken, while tickets were available on secondary markets for as little as $14.

"The New York Post has also reported dismal ticket sales at the New York Jets, whose poor results have not helped in attracting crowds.

"The newspaper reports that corner endzone seats for the game against the Miami Dolphins, with a face value of $173, were going for 55 per cent less at $78, according to SeatGeek. Tickets at the 50-yard-line valued at $75 have dipped 24 per cent to $42." . . .

P.F. Whelan   "Americans are fed up with millionaire actors and athletes preaching to us about how bad our country is, and evidence for that disgust is everywhere we look. 

"We see bumper stickers slamming Hollywood, Facebook posts ripping the NFL and NBA, and most significantly we’re seeing epic declines in viewership across the board.  Unfortunately, that backlash appears to be largely falling on deaf ears.

"In 2016, the NFL made a conscious decision to condone the politically charged antics of a handful of their employees/players, and their ratings took a hit.  Earlier this year, however, they decided to double down by actively participating in, and indeed ratcheting up, those efforts. We’ve seen similar approaches by MLB and the NBA, to the point that we can barely watch any of our team sports without being bombarded by politically tinged virtue signaling.  And while Hollywood has been dominated by leftists for decades, they have taken that domination to new levels recently.  There are few things more American than going to the movies or watching a ballgame, but unfortunately we can now add both to the growing list of traditions that the Left is succeeding in trying to destroy.

"The entertainment corporation Cineworld recently announced that they would be shutting down all of their Regal Cinema movie theaters indefinitely.  The move barely received a shrug from the Left, as they dismissed the news as just another casualty of COVID-19.  But while the pandemic has clearly played a large role in the company’s current woes, attendance at movie theaters has been declining for several years now.  Hollywood’s revenue last year was down almost 10% from 2018. And while we can certainly point to other causal factors such as online streaming, there is a clear and growing revulsion for Hollywood, too, and we need not look any further than the Oscars for evidence.

"In early February, still weeks before the pandemic took hold; the Oscars telecast earned the lowest ratings in their history, only a few weeks after similarly poor ratings for the Golden Globes. " . . .

Beyonce's half-time Super Bowl show was a middle finger to police and all who support them, fitting nicely with the "Jim Crow" accusations made by Robert Francis (Beto) O'Rourke.

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