As we predicted (and it wasn’t rocket science), “Angels in America,” Tony Kushner’s six-hour (whew!) AIDS melodrama on HBO, plummeted even further in the ratings during its third and final segment this last Sunday. The number of viewers willing to watch Kushner’s bizarre political (and factual) spin on the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s dropped from an anemic 4.2 million for the first segment on Dec. 7 to a mere 2.9 million on Dec. 21, Andrew Sullivan reports–despite a Yuletide tie-in of winged spiritual beings. Kushner’s bizarre politics probably had something to do with the resounding audience rejection of this over-hyped play. He manages to blame Ronald Reagan (huh?) for the AIDS epidemic and onetime McCarthy committee staff lawyer Roy Cohn for the execution of Ethel Rosenberg. More than four times as many people tuned in to watch Paris Hilton slop hogs on “The Simple Life” than ever caught a glimpse of Kushner’s angels.
