Spike's 2010 VGAs Were Lowest Rated in Program's History

Tom Goldman

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Aug 17, 2009
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Spike's 2010 VGAs Were Lowest Rated in Program's History



The ratings for the Spike TV Video Game Awards keep getting worse every year.

The 2010 Spike TV Video Game Awards were meant to be huge this year. The event had at the helm. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106073-More-VGA-Trailers-Than-You-Can-Sneeze-At-The-Roundup-Post] Unfortunately for Spike, ratings still dropped.

Variety reports that the ratings figures for the 2010 VGAs were the lowest in the program's history. In 2007, the VGAs had 921,000 viewers. In 2008, there was a big drop to 680,000, 2009 saw 647,000 people tune in, and in 2010 just 627,000 watched.

Despite improvements in certain demographics, such as the number of males ages 18-34 that tuned in rising from 218,000 in 2009 to 251,000 in 2010, this is still an overall drop. Even with DVR playbacks that will be counted through December 18, there wasn't any kind of marked improvement in what was surely meant to be a big year for the awards show.

I didn't watch the VGAs this year so I can't criticize its showing in 2010. In previous years they weren't all that enthralling, but I think the problem with VGA viewership at its root is that the awards just don't matter, partially because of a lack of credibility. Gaming is a personal experience, so why do I care what a television network says is good? A television network that airs programs like Manswers and Hooters: Snow Angels no less?

Even though Spike TV doesn't choose the winners itself, there are a million other avenues, such as websites like The Escapist, to find out what great games came out in 2010 with detailed descriptions of exactly why they're so good. The only real reason to tune into the VGAs for someone like me is to check out the exclusive reveals, but why set aside a couple of hours to watch a bunch of skits and "witty" banter in between things I care about when all of those reveals will be posted on the internet within minutes? I like that a network is at least trying to replicate something like the Grammys or the Golden Globes [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106165-Zombies-Get-Their-First-Golden-Globe-Nomination] for the game industry, but something needs to be done to make people actually care about who gets what.

Source: Variety [http://weblogs.variety.com/technotainment/2010/12/how-did-spikes-vgas-do-ratings-wise.html]


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Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
I watched like 5 min of it, as soon as someone said kratos was a horrible wing man I changed the channel, lest the stupid infect my brain
 

TheAmazingTGIF

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Aug 5, 2009
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I didn't watch it either for the reasons stated above (Manswers, etc.) but I would watch the hell out of it if it was done like the SAG Awards (Screen Actors Guild) where the actors, directors, producers, and people vote for the films that they thought were the best of the year. Get the developers to do a video game version, then you would have industry experts who know this stuff, and I would be all over it.
 

8bitmaster

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Nov 9, 2009
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I was only planning on watching it for the premiere trailers which were online anyways.
 
Oct 14, 2010
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Unfortunately, I'd estimate about 75% of that total audience was made up of games journalists forced to watch so they could report on what an embarrassing affair the awards are.
 

TPiddy

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To be completely honest, nobody cares about who wins Grammys and Oscars anymore either... it's all the industry pandering to itself. Their viewership numbers are down as well. When anyone with a brain can tell they're rigged (Sandra Bullock anyone) it just becomes the industry telling you what's best in the industry when it should really be the consumers.
 

GoGo_Boy

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May 12, 2010
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If this was at least about the developers but no.
There's a bunch of actually gaming-unrelated celebrities that make awkward jokes about gaming. Oh and really the nominations are just poor.

That's exactly what I don't want a game award event to be.
 

laryri

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May 19, 2008
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Hopefully this is the sign developers need that it isn't worth supporting the VGAs with their announcements.
 

Mr. Fister

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It probably doesn't help that they held the show in mid-December, when everyone's too busy dealing with college finals, holiday-shopping, travel, cold weather, and who knows what else.

I didn't watch it, and from the sound of things, I'm probably better off this way. Award shows (video games or otherwise, viewer's choice or not) are largely a farce and have absolutely no impact on my opinion of games.
 

Celtic_Kerr

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Tom Goldman said:
Even though Spike TV doesn't choose the winners itself, there are a million other avenues, such as websites like The Escapist, to find out what great games came out in 2010 with detailed descriptions of exactly why they're so good. The only real reason to tune into the VGAs for someone like me is to check out the exclusive reveals, but why set aside a couple of hours to watch a bunch of skits and "witty" banter in between things I care about when all of those reveals will be posted on the internet within minutes? I like that a network is at least trying to replicate something like the Grammys or the Golden Globes [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106165-Zombies-Get-Their-First-Golden-Globe-Nomination] for the game industry, but something needs to be done to make people actually care about who gets what.
Exactly. BUt then I have that problem with music and TV and Movies. Why do I care who wins? Like crash. Depressive fucking movie, hated it with a passion, but it won movie of the year. All these experiances are subective, so if people arte gonna try to generalize and objetify it, they'll need to make me give a shit first

Wonderful article, and well said
 

JourneyThroughHell

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Sep 21, 2009
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Well, isn't this a surprise?

That's right. It isn't.

Nobody cares for the popularity contests and the celebritites, and we can watch the trailers later, thank you very much.
 

Raithnor

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Jul 26, 2009
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They should take the Awards part out of the show and just have it be a serious of upcoming gaming presentations. Spend more time with longer trailers and dev/game Q&As and less time watching Celebrities make lame jokes.
 

ranger19

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I watched about 15 minutes of the show before turning it off. If you caught any of it, you would quickly realize the problem: it was terrible. A lot of that stemmed from the way the show brought in many famous people, but it was clear that these people weren't interested in games. At best, some people (like that guy from How I Met Your Mother) were merely awkward (this guy made the dumbest sex jokes). One actress came onscreen and it was clear she never played any games, she didn't know a thing about what she was talking about, and she was reading off a teleprompter (very poorly, I might add). It just wasn't worth watching when the trailers would be online hours later.

It feels like spike wants the VGAs to be like the oscars or grammys or what have you, but the way they bring in people from non vide-game industries makes it painful. But also, I believe awards were given based on online voting systems, so the show turned into a popularity contest. Black Ops won more awards (I believe) than it should - just look at who won "Best Character". That also takes away from its legitimacy.
 

CharrHearted

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Aug 20, 2010
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I almost vomited when they gave the best graphics award to God of war 3. Heavy rain showed immense and amazing graphics! And best zombie game... Red dead redemption!??! THAT'S NOT EVEN A ZOMBIE GAME, except for it's DLC. WHAT THE HELL!? if anything best zombie game should have went to Dead rising 2. :/ I am pissed off on so many other subjects aswell.
 

Chechosaurus

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I quite enjoyed them. I mean, the hosting was cheesy to the extreme at times but I liked to announcements for new games and I was just please to see Bioware take away a load of awards. However, I'm not surprised that not many people watched. I wasn't actually able to watch it over here in GB but after some clever web searching by myself and my cohort, we did manage to find a channel to watch them on. Even so, if you can't stream your show worldwide given the technology we have today, you don't deserve high ratings.
 

Optimystic

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fare777 said:
I almost vomited when they gave the best graphics award to God of war 3. Heavy rain showed immense and amazing graphics! And best zombie game... Red dead redemption!??! THAT'S NOT EVEN A ZOMBIE GAME, except for it's DLC. WHAT THE HELL!? if anything best zombie game should have went to Dead rising 2. :/ I am pissed off on so many other subjects aswell.
I think the bigger problem is that "Best Zombie Game" is a category they thought was worthy of airtime.
 

s2dio

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May 21, 2008
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Didn't the VGAs go out at the same time as UFC 124? That's a torn audience right there...
 

SomebodyNowhere

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I didn't watch it if just for the reason that every trailer and big story to come out of the show would be available nearly instantly after it airs and without having to wade through the slog of another terrible awards show. As much as I appreciate the people that make games, award shows are only good for the people getting awards or those so tied up in fanboyism so much that they're trying to grasp a small amount of that glory vicariously.
 

Onyx Oblivion

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Sep 9, 2008
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I'm glad they have fun with it. Games may be trying to be a SERIOUS BUSINESS these days, but I enjoy seeing stupid, ridiculous award shows that don't take themselves seriously.

Every year, I try and watch The Oscars, and every year, I turn it off. But the VGAs are something that I can watch.

That said, the Neil Patrick Harris Voice Acting Award was stupid.