Despite Star Power, Tony Awards Viewership Down in 2010

An evening of winning Hollywood star power couldn’t save the 2010 Tony Awards telecast from a dip in TV ratings. The 64th annual installment of the awards, hosted by Sean Hayes and broadcast live from Radio City Music Hall by CBS, drew in 7 million viewers, down from last year’s 7.4 million, according to the Nielsen report.

Though it's no surprise to theater fans—New York-based Broadway remains a niche market by comparison to its more accessible, less localized counterparts—the Tony Awards were the year’s least-watched of the big ceremonies, clocking in behind the Academy Awards (41.7 million), the Grammy Awards (25.9 million) and the Golden Globes (17 million), all of which enjoyed modest upticks in viewership this year. The 8% decrease comes in spite of the Tony Awards’ heavily publicized roster of celeb talent, from winners Denzel Washington, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Scarlett Johansson to mainstream-friendly TV performances by Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison of Glee and Grammy Award winners Green Day. The broadcast may have suffered (as it usually does) from heavy competition from the 2010 NBA finals: The big game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics drew 14.4 million viewers, over twice the audience of the Tony Awards. Over on HBO, the well-publicized season premiere of True Blood also competed with the Tonys.

Don’t cry for Broadway’s big night, however. Despite the dip in ratings, this year's show still fared better than it did in 2008, when the telecast was seen by just 6.27 million viewers.