Poll Says Less Politics, More Dark Knight

Fandango has commissioned a poll of 7000 moviegoers to come up with these results, a whopping 70% said they would be more inclined to watch if The Dark Knight was nominated — then again, can anyone really trust internet polls? The results don’t reflect the television viewing public so much as the cloistered world of web users – there is a difference. As reported by the Guardian:

The No 1 turn-off for viewers turned out to be political speeches, with 51% saying they would be more likely to watch a show which banned them. “We don’t care what you think about politics,” said one respondent. “A bit of graciousness would be in order.”

Other top peeves included technical awards (34%), excessive show length (33%), live musical numbers (27%) and “forced” celebrity banter (26%). But elements which audiences liked included a single presenter for the whole show (65%), the “in memoriam” tribute (57%), red-carpet celebrity fashion (52%) and the opening monologue (48%).

Producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon ‚Äì who took over after last year’s ceremony was watched by 32 million US viewers, the lowest figure in 39 years ‚Äì could do worse than shoehorn in endless references to The Dark Knight, the biggest film of 2008 at the US box office. 71% of respondents said they would be more likely to watch if Christopher Nolan’s superhero sequel was up for best film.

This suggestion was echoed by the 81% of voters who felt the Academy was out of touch with cinemagoers. 29% said they refused to watch the show because they hadn’t seen the nominated films. “Stop giving awards to overrated indie films,” one respondent wrote.

I don’t mind the political speeches, I must say.