The award for the most dead format goes to … award shows. If you've been on the internet at all this week, you probably either haven't heard anything about The Streamy Awards or heard it was a hot mess. The Streamy Awards is an award show for social media stars, yet most influencers avoid it like the plague. YouTubers from Trisha Paytas to Pewdiepie have described it as low-budget, pandering and cringe-inducing.
Barely anyone watched it. As of Sept. 9, the YouTube upload only has 1.2 million views. That may not sound half bad, but videos on YouTube's trending page regularly reach 20-40 million views. Not to mention Mr. Beast's videos, which almost all enjoy, have view counts in the hundreds of millions.
Speaking of Mr. Beast, this was the fourth year in a row Mr. Beast has won the Creator of the Year award, and he has yet to show up once to claim his prize. Halfway through the show, there was a 20-minute bit parodying his content, and it was embarrassing, like drunk texting someone after they stood you up four times.
Complaining about something is never going to fix it, though. The Streamy Awards can go two ways. The first and more boring option is to go full prestige. No more overly drawn-out bits. No more live performances. The band choices were so out of left field, and the performances were equal in quality to a poorly run middle school talent show. Cut out the awkward award show talk before announcing the nominees, although watching Tana Mongeau drunkenly stumble through a cheesy pre-written speech was certainly entertaining. Just announce the nominees, name the winner and let them give a short speech. It would also be nice to keep the charity shout-out. That didn't take up too much time, and it was for a good cause.
The other option would be to go full Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards: make it ridiculous and fun. The host this year was MatPat of "Game Theory" fame. It seems like a random choice, but he was the best part of the show. He was charismatic and not scared to poke fun at YouTube. The Elsagate reference was funny, and the AI bit wasn't half bad and didn't overstay its welcome.
How awesome would it be to slime some pompous YouTuber when their self-aggrandizing speech goes on too long? Bring in fun, relevant pop stars to put on a show (seriously who cares about Meghan Trainor or Icona Pop in 2023). Have food fights, weird bits and Jack Black shredding it on the guitar. Let kids see their favorite TikTokers, YouTubers and streamers having fun instead of looking like bored coworkers at a mandatory company mixer.
At this point, it's hard to tell what audience The Streamy Awards aims to capture. It's too immature and esoteric for adults and too boring and drawn out for kids to sit through. Going full prestige would aim more toward adults, while going full Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards would pander to kids.
This philosophy could also help other popular award shows. The Oscars viewership has been floundering for years. It only goes up when something awful happens. Most people remember the infamous Will Smith slap or the "Moonlight"/"La La Land" fiasco. Yet, if you polled random people on the street, would most people be able to name the Best Picture winner last year?
As social media slowly replaces television and movies as the public's main entertainment, there will be more and more eyes on The Streamy Awards. Like YouTube Rewind, The Streamy Awards must change before they are inevitably canceled or replaced. Maybe then they can finally convince Mr. Beast to show up.
