It’s an honour just to be nominated
The Canadian Screen Awards air March 1. Will you tune in? Don’t worry: you’re not alone (we’re assuming you said no). In 2014, the CSAs earned a mere 534,000 viewers, a dip of more than 30% from the year before, when 756,000 tuned in. Somewhat appropriately, the latter figure is what you would get if you combined the average yearly viewership of the Genie and Gemini awards, which were married in 2013 to create the Screenies. By contrast, last year’s Oscars were watched by 6.1 million Canadians. It’s a jarring disparity, but an unsurprising one — and not just because ours are called “the Canadian Screen Awards.”
“I think what the U.S. awards season has is a well-established star system,” says Kathryn Emslie, chief programs officer for the Canadian Film Centre, an incubator for homegrown talent. “We’re still evolving. The challenge is: Are we getting the public to pay attention?”
Those behind the awards seem keen to remedy this: This past Wednesday, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television (ACCTV), which oversees the CSAs, announced a new prize: the “Golden Screen Awards,” two of which will be handed out to the TV show and reality program with the highest viewership. The idea seems to be that people will be more likely to watch an awards show if it celebrates things they’ve actually watched. ACCTV chair Martin Katz agrees with that theory — to a point. “It’s a way of bringing some element of the popular into our awards program, which is otherwise a peer-based assessment,” he says. “I don’t think it’s pandering. We want to recognize that there are programs that people in the industry will vote for, and programs that people are watching. I think it’s exciting that we can do a bit of both. It’s appropriate to acknowledge the things that are doing well.”
To that end, there are plenty of things that the CSAs are doing well, purposefully or otherwise. Katz cites the number of social media impressions garnered by the awards in 2014, which were more than four times the amount earned in 2013 (in spite of the ratings slide — and perhaps because of the evolving use of social media). It’s arguable that the CSAs are having an impact, but that impact has nothing to do with viewership numbers. And maybe that’s what we should focus on. For people like Chris Agoston, a producer on bestpicture CSA nominee Cast No Shadow — a coming-of-agestory with a budget of less than $1-million — the nomination alone will raise significant interest, both among industry peers and audiences. “Suddenly, I think a lot of the rest of Canada said, ‘I don’t know what this movie is and I have to see it.’ They do us a huge service with just that nomination.”
Instead of trying to figure out why the CSAs don’t work, let’s redefine how we look at them: more about the nominees and less about the gala. That’s Katz’s view, anyway. “The French have the Césars — they don’t complain about how many people are watching or not watching,” he says. “As is the case with the BAFTAS. We’re part of that trend.” Emslie is more succinct: “The CSAs aren’t just about the awards.”
The problem might not lie with the ACCTV — “they’re trying,” Agoston says, and Katz, of course, concurs. It might instead be that audiences subscribe to the idea that an awards show’s success is only measurable by the strength of its ratings. That might be true in the U.S., where there’s less worry about homegrown films being seen, whereas here, it is a legitimate concern for myriad reasons. Add to this the fact that Canadians aren’t exactly quick to embrace self-congratulation, which Emslie calls it “the curse of humility.” Combined, these two factors add up to a deadly, self-effacing cocktail.
That’s not to let the CSAs off the hook. They may be vital as, to quote Emslie, “an industry standard.” But from an outsider’s perspective, they’re a mess: 183 (!) categories across three disciplines (TV, film and digital), and saddled with a televised gala that airs after the Golden Globes, Grammys, Oscars and even the BAFTAs have already sucked awards-season appetites dry. It is the Boxing Day of awards shows. To the viewing public, the marrying of the country’s film and TV awards smacks of compressing as much glamour into one ultra-shiny place, in the hopes that audiences will be attracted simply by the glitz. They could do with some refinement — greater star power, sure, but also fewer categories and a recognition that audiences consume different content in different ways.
Agoston concedes that the awards show is struggling. “It’s in its infancy,” he says, “so it hasn’t quite resonated with everyone.” But, he says it’s still necessary. “If our awards don’t matter, we’re in big trouble. We’d only further the issue by eliminating it.” And Katz will be damned if he isn’t pushing for it. This year, he’s convinced Belland Rogers-owned networks to run ads for the CSAs, which air on CBC. The idea here isn’t necessarily to drum up interest in the gala itself, but the awards at large, which, Katz hopes, will draw attention toward the nominees. “We’re not in the business of putting on a show,” he says. “It’s a highlight of accomplishments. So bringing all the networks together centres on the idea that the more people ... are aware of the awards, the better for everyone.”
The CSAs don’t necessarily fail if their ratings stink. They do fail, though, if the nominees Katz and the rest of his peers honour wake up March 2 with just a trophy and a prayer — or worse, just the prayer. It’s a tougher success metric because, at least with ratings, you can quantify your blunder in six or, god willing, seven figures. And if the CSAs attract more Canadians toward homegrown talent, the impact might not be measurable in the context of the Screenies — if at all — until next year’s awards. That’s the hope, anyway.
“Look at the numbers CBC has been getting for Schitt’s Creek and Book of Negroes,” Emslie says. “It’s awesome. Maybe next year at the CSAs, people will be wondering about whether they’re nominated.”
So, with apologies to this year’s host Andrea Martin, don’t worry too much about watching the CSAs. The few hundred people in attendance will dress up and have fun whether anyone tunes in or not. Your job is to watch a Canadian movie instead, so the people who deserve to make them can keep doing so.