Anecdotal evidence (aka Water Cooler and Twitter talk) told me that overall people were pleased with this performance-packed Tony Awards telecast, but maybe not as much as last year.  But you and I both know that you can’t base anything entirely on anecdotal evidence.  We need real hard data.

So, last week I polled all of you (and those folks on Twitter), to see just what you really thought about this year’s Tonys.

And now, are you ready for the results?

Well too bad, because you’re getting them anyway.

• 97.09% of you watched the Tonys.
• On a scale of 1 to 10, here’s how you rated the show:
  • 5.57% gave it a 10
  • 14.76% gave it a 9
  • 23.68% gave it an 8
  • That’s a 44.01% 8-or-better rating compared to last year’s 90.57%.
  • Yikes (that deserved its own bullet point)
• Comparing this year’s telecast to last year’s telecast:
  • 29.25% said it was better
  • 28.13% said it was the same
  • 25.07% said it was worse
  • 16.16% said it was much better
  • 1.39% said it was much worse
• Your favorite part of the telecast was:
  • Production numbers – 37.60%
  • The host – 19.50%
  • The opening number – 13.09%
  • Acceptance speeches – 13.09%
  • Finding out who wins – 10.58%
  • Other – 5.29%
  • The presenters – 0.84%
• Your least favorite part of the telecast was . . .
  • Would you be shocked to hear that “Hairspray from the cruise ship” was what you answered most for this question?  I didn’t think so.
• Your favorite musical number was . . .
  • Newsies – 30.64%
  • Once – 23.12%
  • Porgy and Bess – 13.65%
  • Godspell – 8.36%
  • Leap of Faith – 5.29%
  • Follies – 5.29%
  • Nice Work If You Can Get It – 4.18%
  • Jesus Christ Superstar – 3.62%
  • Evita – 3.62%
  • Ghost – 1.11%
  • Royal Caribbean’s Hairspray – 0.84%
• We asked what you would suggest to the Tony Producers to make it a more exciting evening.  Here’s what came up the most:
  • “Hire Neil Patrick Harris for another year.”
  • “Put the tech awards & special awards back on prime-time broadcast!”
  • “Just keep Neil Patrick Harris as the host forever – and let him do whatever he wants.”
  • “More performances.”
  • “BERNADETTE PETERS.”

Not such a great year, according to you die-hards out there.  Although, honestly, in defense of the telecast (which I gave an 8.5 – 9), they set the bar pretty damn high last year, so we were bound to take a bit of a dive.

Now, if you haven’t heard yet, the show took a precipitous drop in the ratings.  But why?  Because of a sports event on another network?  Or is it because apparently you’re dying to hear Bernadette belt out a number?

Good questions.

I’ll give you my thoughts tomorrow.

(Got a comment? I love ‘em, so comment below!  Email subscribers, click here then scroll down, to say what’s on your mind!)

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