Here’s something to consider. Does it take a sweep, or at least some kind of wave, for televised events of annual interest to attract peak audiences? Budget telecasts and Oscar ceremonies may have little in common, except the breathless hype that precedes both, but the TV ratings recorded by the latter make us wonder. This year?s Oscar ceremony, marking the Academy?s 80th anniversary, achieved its lowest ever viewership rating on record in America. Only around 32 million Americans tuned in. Anecdotal evidence from other large movie-crazed markets (such as India, India and India) suggests that the viewership slump was a worldwide phenomenon, though exact figures for Indian audience ratings are still awaited. Earlier years? Oscar winners clearly had more buzz going for them. Could it be that this year?s winning films were much too low-key? Ask around. People still haven?t heard of them. As for show hosts, the days of Whoopy Goldberg?s goldfish jokes and Billy Crystal?s sparkle are only fond memories. Could it be that the ceremony has taken a turn for the grim? Possibly. What about other factors? Oscar viewership in the US hit its peak in 1998, with waves created by Titanic, a film described by Indian critics as a Hindi blockbuster made in English, soppy songs, et al. The real reason why this year?s Oscar ceremony did so dismally was that there was no heroic film that swept everyone off their feet. Little statuettes of golden men holding their swords were dispersed far and wide, though not far and wide enough to reach Indian shores, except obliquely through some work done on award-winning outsourced special effects.
The larger question is whether this logic?to stretch the term?of audience interest applies equally to other televised events, such as live Budget telecasts. Do ?balanced? Budgets, for example, without any obvious tilt one way or another, or a sweep, lose audiences? Again, the TV rating figures would take a while coming, but this year?s Budget had a huge farmer bonanza in the form of a Rs 60,000-crore debt relief package. Given that word of this ?wave off? had already gotten around amongst farmers, it is possible that this Budget got high viewership beyond urban India. Farmers should have been watching with bated breath. But did the ?wave off? set off a ?wave??