The pomp and circumstance of award shows has caused many critics and outside observers to bristle. “Why would I want to watch a bunch of overpaid celebrities congratulate themselves for being great?” Such a line gets thrown around whenever there’s a big award show coming up, sometimes even featured within the show itself as a kind of winking nod, as if to say, “we’re in on the joke.”
Let’s be clear about something right off the bat. Art is subjective. How can you possibly try to quantify what makes this masterpiece better than that masterpiece? And let’s say you don’t even think they’re that great. How can a movie like Crash win the Oscar for Best Picture when it’s such a ham-fisted, obviously flawed film, and why would we still take the Oscars seriously after making such a choice? That’s not an easy question to answer, but I do believe there’s a reason such awards continue to be popular among vast segments of the population.
Personally speaking, I’ve grown up with award shows and have a passion for following them to this day. This has caused more than a few funny looks even from close friends, but allow me to try and parcel out exactly why award shows are worth following. Keep in mind that I will be mostly talking about the big 4, the Oscars, the Emmys, the Grammys, and the Tonys.
1. They’re like sports, but more catty
There’s a reason why the Oscars in particular are compared to the Super Bowl. Each of the big 4 award shows is a culmination of the year that came before, celebrating the best of the best (in theory) and deciding the ultimate winner(s). There is an irresistible appeal of rooting for the underdog, the underappreciated piece of art that truly moved you from the past year. Like in baseball, you’ll still have fans rooting for dynasties like the New York Yankees, in this case Meryl Streep or Adele, but when the underdog gets the gold, it’s a beautiful feeling. It can get pretty ugly between fellow award-watchers (especially regarding actresses or female singers), but like with any great passion, it comes from deep love.
2. They recognize talent in art
A movie, TV show, singer or stage show can be popular, but that shouldn’t be the only measure of success. Critics can only do so much as far as calling attention to truly exceptional art, so it’s up to award shows to recognize excellence for a mainstream audience looking to expand their appreciation of the medium. The Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, and Tonys are all voted on by respected members of their industries, which serves as a vote of confidence that was they are voting for is the best of their craft, or at least the most enjoyable for a wide swath of people.
3. They give boosts to the art that most needs it
Many major award shows give recognition to less popular art, thus giving them the attention they deserve. Moonlight made just over $20 million at the box office and could have been forgotten if the Oscars didn’t award it Best Picture. Now it has a place in film history, and many future generations will seek it out for themselves. Popularity doesn’t always equal quality, so when the Emmys give Best Comedy Series to the low-rated Arrested Development or the Grammys give Best New Artist to jazz musician Esperanza Spalding over Justin Bieber, it means so much more. Award shows are able to take art with niche followings and prove their value to the mainstream.
4. The glitz, the glamour
Award shows are some of the most expensive events of the year and you can see every dollar onscreen, from the beautiful dresses to the extravagant stage designs to the elaborate production numbers. There is an undeniable appeal of seeing the most gorgeous celebrities in the world decked out to the nines hobnobbing with fellow stars. For many, the red carpet is the reason to tune in to every award show. E!’s Fashion Police are in full force, and you too can make your own judgments at home. It can be an escapism into the glamorous lives of the rich and famous.
5. The thrill of the race
Awards obsessives don’t just care about the night of the show. It’s a whole process before that, between figuring out which contenders are in the hunt this year and who is throwing the best campaign parties. Fans love to lobby for their favorites to get nominated, and it can be fun (and sometimes heartbreaking) figuring out whether your preferred artist, movie, or show will get in. It’s also fun to see contenders come and go as the race goes on, with seemingly locked nominees falling by the wayside and “little engines that could” cropping up.
6. The predictive factor
For me personally, predictions are half the fun of award shows. Trying to predict the most likely set of nominees is like solving an intricate puzzle, except you can’t look at the box and you can only start to figure it out if you’ve studied past puzzles. A number of factors come into play here, including what voters tend to like, what’s had the most buzz, and whether a bad reputation might hurt someone’s chances. I discovered awards prediction website Gold Derby in the mid-2000s, a site I would later write for, and I still have a blast making my major award predictions there every year.
7. The losers aren’t really losers
People tend to get upset when their favorites lose. It’s a natural instinct that extends well beyond award shows. But unlike many other areas of life, not winning an award is not the end of the world. As cliche as the saying is, it is truly an honor to be nominated, because it means you’re being recognized by your peers. Nominations are victories, and people really do earn them, so while you may see only a select few up on stage, award shows are really a celebration of everyone who did great work from the past year.
8. There are rare glimpses of celebrity vulnerability
For those that do win, award shows offer a peek behind the curtain that reveals who you favorite celebrities truly are. So much of being a celebrity artist is PR-driven, controlled, and often manufactured, but put them in front of a podium accepting an award from their peers and you’ll find some genuine emotion. Look at Lin-Manuel Miranda’s speech about love at the Tonys, or Marion Cotillard praising the “angels in this city” at the Oscars, or Adele crying over winning Album of the Year over Beyoncé earlier this year. Those were real moments from the heart that people still remember for their authenticity to this day.
9. They’re great for live-tweeting
On a lighter note, the advent of Twitter has given rise to live-tweeting major TV events, where you can join the chorus of viewers voicing their opinions. Award shows have become such a communal event that live-tweeting has become part of the deal. It’s where memes have been born and outrage has been expressed. Even if you don’t have a big group watching with you, logging on to Twitter and trying to yell your opinion the loudest can be a fun experience.
10. They create opportunity
Winning a major award can work wonders for an artist’s career. For movie actors, it means more opportunities. For TV stars, it can give you a huge salary boost. For singers, it makes for greater commercial success. For Broadway shows, it provides the mainstream advertising that can prevent you from shutting down. Some may claim that awards don’t matter in the long run, but for so many creatives hoping to make careers out of their art, they can make dreams come true. This is especially relevant for minority stars. Take Viola Davis’ famous Emmy speech for example, in which she stated, “you cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.” This success creates opportunities for voices outside the predominately white male system, and can ultimately provide inspiration for a new generation of young artists who now see that they too can reach for the stars.
11. They are time capsules
If award shows serve no other purpose, at the very least they provide a semi-accurate slice of life from the year in which take took place. They show how 2011 was the year of Adele, how 1997 was the year of Titanic, and how 2016 was a banner year for African American-centered cinema. They represent how artists felt about each other’s contributions to the world from each point in history, and how art reflected the realities of the nation. You may look back now and be baffled that Pulp Fiction didn’t win Best Picture in 1994, or that The Wire never won an Emmy, but each year had its own set of circumstances that we can now look back on as historical records of pop culture.