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Just days from now, the nominations for the 91st Academy Awards will be announced, and some people will flock to their computers to search each nominee.
Google Trends tracks the peak popularity of all searches, and during awards season, it’s not just the searches for the Oscar nominees that increase.
The Grammy nominees were announced Dec. 7, which was the day searches peaked for some lesser-known artists. H.E.R., whose debut album picked up a nomination for Album of the Year, was searched the most on the day Grammy nominations came out and the day after.
Google Trends measures the popularity of a term on a scale of 0 to 100. The data is relative to the peak date, so if a term’s peak was 500 searches, Google would represent that as a 100, and any percentage of that number indicates the relative popularity on other days.
Though Brandi Carlile hit her peak on Dec. 20, the folk-rock singer’s interest was at 95 percent the day of the Grammy announcements.
The trend does not follow with artists who seem to be in the media a lot and in everyday conversations.
Post Malone picked up four Grammy nominations, but relative to his peak searches on Jan. 1, Malone’s interest was at a 19 on Dec. 7.
Taylor Swift’s peak interest in the last 90 days was on Jan. 1, probably because of her concert movie’s release on Netflix. Her searches relating to the Grammys was 23 percent of her peak, which might be because she only picked up one nomination.
Triple threat Janelle Monáe released her album Dirty Computer in April 2018. The politically packed and sexy tracks earned her an Album of the Year nomination, but people were searching her name more the day after the Golden Globes. The singer and actor made an appearance at the awards ceremony but was not among the nominees.
As for her album, its most-searched day was that of the Grammy nominations.
As for the Golden Globes, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s search trends peaked the day after the more than three-hour telecast that honors film and TV. The show only picked up one win, but interest in the show goes up after it wins awards.
From the time the Emmy nominations were announced July 13 to the day before broadcast on Sept. 18, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel rarely garnered searches that matched its peak the day of the Emmys. The show from Amazon Studios won eight of the 12 awards for which it was nominated.
Despite picking up only one win at the Golden Globes, A Star Is Born hit peak popularity the day after the live telecast of the awards show.
It’s not a stretch to say when the Oscar nominees are announced, searches will go up for the films, actors, directors and screenwriters. Looking at last year’s numbers for the night’s biggest winners — from the time the nominees were announced to two days after the ceremony — proved that to be true.
Best Picture winner The Shape of Water piqued everyone’s interest March 5, the day after the ceremony.
Heartthrob Timothée Chalamet was nominated for his role in Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name, and a lot of people were searching his name March 5.
Jordan Peele’s chart showed his interest throughout the year was nothing higher than 9 percent of his peak, which he also reached on March 5. Peele became the first black man to win Best Original Screenplay for Get Out, which also reached its peak March 5.
Despite the uptick in searching around major award ceremonies, Ohio University students don’t follow the trends.
Julia Casella, a sophomore studying health services and health administration, does not follow the Oscars, Grammys or Emmys. She said she loves fashion and culture, but she doesn’t watch the ceremonies. Instead, she turns to Netflix, Hulu and Spotify for recommendations.
Emily Salatin, a freshman studying early childhood education, also looks to Netflix for viewing advice and to her friends for music recommendations. As for the nomination of major awards, she doesn’t actively seek out who has been nominated.
“I usually don’t see it on my feed,“ Salatin said.
