Awards shows are promoted constantly throughout the year, both online and through TV commercials. They attract a lot of attention, but students have mixed feelings about watching them since they’re long and some people just aren’t interested.
Each year, regular television is interrupted with live-streaming of celebrities walking the red carpet to attend one award show or another, followed by a celebration of the hard work and talent that went into the year’s music, movies and TV shows.
Awards shows like the Emmys, Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Grammys and Tonys attract many viewers as they wait to see if their favorite actors, musicians, or movies win any awards.
“People like to watch awards shows because they like to have fun,” junior David Furney said. “They watch them for entertainment.”
Created in 1929, the Academy Awards (Oscars) was the first awards shows of all time. When it was first created, it wasn’t a show at all, but a private black-tie dinner that celebrated the achievements of actors and movie makers during the past year.
It was a night filled with speeches and the Academy President handed out statuettes to the winners. Back then, the recipients of the Awards were already announced in advance, so nobody was surprised by who won.
Now, it is Academy Awards season once more. Ellen DeGeneres will be hosting for the second time, and the buzz around the awards has been going on for a while now.
“I think Ellen will make a good host,” freshman Ceilidh Williams said. “Everyone just kind of loves her. She gets along with everyone.” said Williams.
Once again, celebrities will make the walk down the red carpet to the biggest celebration of talent in film and movies. The Academy Awards remains the most viewed of the awards shows.
People all over and of all ages tune in to see these awards shows for a variety of reasons. Some watch to see if their favorite celebrity takes home an award while others prefer watching the performances that are interspersed between the acceptance speeches.
“People watch them because they’re entertaining and they get to see the people they idolize win stuff,” senior Xavier Felix said.
Sophomore Sarah Woodward enjoys watching award shows because they provide a chance to see her favorite celebrities receive awards.
“It’s really fun to see my favorite celebrities get recognized for being awesome,” Woodward said.
She is planning on watching the Academy Awards this year, which are her favorite of the awards shows.
“My favorite parts are the performances because the speeches are boring,” Woodward said.
Many students prefer watching the highlights of the Academy Awards, or any award shows because they don’t have to deal with the commercials or annoying parts of an award show.
“I watch the recaps of the Grammys and Oscars because they’re shorter,” sophomore Anarae Howe said.
Watching recaps of the awards provides a quicker, easier way to see the most important and interesting results of the night.
With social media these days, the buzz about these awards gets crazy and most teens rely on those websites, such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr to get them updated to the different award shows. Between trending topics on Twitter, the newest feed on Instagram some say it’s hard not to know what was going on.
“I only watched part of the Grammys, but I saw on Twitter what was going on,” sophomore Mahlet Bereket said.
When another award show comes around, the excitement surrounding the event can be seen all over the internet and television. Whether waiting anxiously for their favorite celebrity to accept an award or watching the performances attentively, millions of people tune in to watch awards shows and many more are able to see the results on social media sites.
The 86th Academy Awards will be at 7:00 pm on March 2nd and can be watched on ABC.