I didn’t watch the Oscars the other night. Apparently I was not alone.

Viewership dropped off nearly 60% from the last telecast to a figure just under 10 million people. Now, that’s still a lot of viewers, but comparatively speaking, it’s not much at all. Why is that, we wonder?

I think there are several reasons, beginning with the pandemic which killed hundreds of thousands of people — hard to get that out of mind — and which among other things closed up movie theaters around the country. It also shut down a lot of movie productions. Bottom line, there weren’t a whole bunch of new movies to watch, and the usual places for watching them weren’t open.

That’s not all, however. Hollywood choice of movies for production and distribution tuned out to be a lot of dramatic, intense, sad films — not exactly what a suffering nation would most appreciate. So, hardly anyone one saw the movies Hollywood made; I couldn’t even name the films nominated for an Oscar, much less the directors and actors involved. Why should I bother watching the actors and directors and the rest celebrate themselves for doing something I was never remotely involved with?

And the answer is — I didn’t. And of course neither did others like me. I doubt many or possibly any felt a loss about it.

And then there’s yet another reason: the narcissism of the whole enterprise. Hollywood congratulating itself once again. Actors who are paid so much having another opportunity to show us they are regular guys. Or, worse, preaching to us about one or another matters from their exalted positions in the universe. I’m weary of that. And also I don’t care how someone looks in their new dress that someone else designed for them. And I really don’t care how many orphans they rescued in the last 12 months.

So it was mostly a wash for me. I feel I missed out on absolutely nothing because I spend the evening watching a game show on TV and reading a book about English history. I’m not ruling out going back to the movies down the road — that’s up to you, Hollywood — but I’m pretty sure I’ve watched my last Oscars ceremony.

I’ve got a lot more books waiting, too.