While the Tony Awards take place in New York and celebrate Broadway theater, there is more than a modicum (apparently significantly more) amount of interest in them here in Sacramento.
We at The Bee recently received a letter complaining of our lack of Tony coverage before and after the June 11 airing of the telecast. The letter writer, David Czarnecki, general manager of Garbeau’s Dinner Theatre, wondered what Tommy Tune must have thought when he opened the arts section and there was no story. For the record, Tommy Tune was performing in Grand Rapids, Mich., that day and I suspect what he mostly wondered was, “What am I doing in Grand Rapids?”
But Czarnecki may have a point, considering Sacramento television ratings for the Tony Awards broadcast on CBS affiliate Channel 13: The Sacramento-Stockon area was the eighth-highest viewing market in the nation for the program - significant considering we’re the 19th-ranked market in overall size. We had ratings of 7.8 and a 13 share. Our ratings were higher than Los Angeles (second-largest market), which had 6.1, and San Francisco (sixth-largest), which had 5.7. Both had shares of 10.
(As my television savvy colleague here at The Bee, Sam McManis, succinctly explains it: “Ratings chart the percentage of all homes with TVs; shares measure the number of TV sets turned on at a particular time.”)
I don’t completely understand it, either, but I think it means The Bee needs to send yours truly out to New York to cover theater a little more often.
-- Marcus Crowder
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