How would the network notice the boycott?
Watch the awards for the first three minutes then turn it off.
They’ll notice the deep instant drop in viewers.
No, they still go by the Nielsen numbers...which come from the Nielsen families only.
I used to work for Nielsen, and sat in on some of the meetings with cable providers to try and capture this data... it's meaningless because they still can't tell how many are in your household, if you're really watching or not... or anything else about you (age/race/etc).
I think the TV folks prefer it the way it is anyway... the people who sign up to be Nielsen families are biased from the start... they tend to be TV watchers in the first place. That in itself skews the numbers... it's a real racket.