American Music Awards Hit All-Time Ratings Low as Taylor Swift Gets Political
Have Americans had enough of celebrities lecturing them about politics?
It certainly looks that way, at least if the recent “American Music Awards” are any sign.
On Tuesday, the pop culture awards show aired on ABC, and one of its star performers has been in the news a lot lately: Taylor Swift.
Swift, as has been covered endlessly by the fawning mainstream media, recently joined the list of stars running their mouths about elections. The country-turned-pop musician and occasional actress tried to influence the upcoming Tennessee election for Senate by slamming the Republican candidate, Marsha Blackburn.
Swift made the bizarre claim that Blackburn — if you look closely, a woman — was bad for women, and used Instagram to encourage Tennesseans to vote for the male Democrat in the race.
Media outlets jumped on the story, and cheered the perpetually-heartbroken singer for revitalizing the election.
Circa News tried desperately to claim that tens of thousands of people had rushed to register to vote just because Swift had spoken up.
“Taylor Swift’s Instagram post about midterm elections has increased voter registration nationwide,” a breathless headline from the major online news site declared.
“Over 50,000 new registrations have been tallied nationwide after Taylor Swift made her political views public for the first time ever,” the story stated.
We’re just going to say it: Informed and educated voters are important. If somebody had no interest in voting in the midterms, an Instagram post from a blonde pop singer is a pretty bad reason to rush out and blindly stumble into a polling booth without knowing about the issues.
It apparently hadn’t dawned on that outlet that the singer’s social media post had only been published two days prior, and the fact that the hotly-contested midterm election was less than a month away — not to mention voter registration deadlines also within days of the post — were likely the real reasons for an increase in national voter registrations.
That report and others like it made it seem as if the pop diva had a huge following that was excited to show up wherever she did, even to the polls. But dismal ratings from the Swift-backed American Music Awards blow huge holes in that theory.
“ABC’s ‘AMAs’ set a new record low in TV ratings on Tuesday, despite Taylor Swift opening the show with a performance and closing it by clutching the evening’s top award,” The Wrap reported.
How bad was it? Pretty darn bad.
“The ‘American Music Awards’ settled for a 1.8 rating this year among adults 18-49, which is the demographic most attractive to advertisers,” explained the entertainment news site.
“It had a 2.4 in 2017 when the special aired on a Sunday in November. Last year’s 2.4 tied the previous record-low set by the 2016 version,” The Wrap continued.
You read that right: The previous low for the AMA’s was a 2.4 Nielsen rating. Taylor Swift, hot off her political ranting, sunk this year’s ratings to an appalling 1.8. In simple terms, it stunk.
It looks like the singer just isn’t the magnet the left thinks she is. If anything, you could make the case that people are tired of celebrities sabotaging their own acts by delving into political commentary. They sure seem to be turning off their TVs in droves.
Once again, liberals seem to be in an echo chamber and have vastly overestimated their own popularity among heartland Americans. If that trend proves true on election day, Democrats are in for a shocking surprise.
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