Many of the nominated shows you will not have watched.
Many of the nominated actors you will not be familiar with.
Even once they’re nominated, you still won’t watch these shows.
The Emmy campaigns in Los Angeles will be the biggest ever this year. Look for billboards everywhere. It’s only a matter of time before robo-calls.
With so many competing shows and talent there will be way more snubs this year.
There will be shows and actors nominated in categories they don’t belong in.
The Academy will be trying to cut down on the number of actual awards shown live as if giving out writing awards is what causes their four-hour show to be ponderous.
There will be no talk of omitting directing awards from the primetime telecast.
Broadcast networks will get just a sprinkling of nominations while cable and streaming services will get the vast majority.
The debate will be renewed as to whether a streaming show is considered “television.”
Most people will watch the nominated shows on their computers or devices, not their TV’s.
And finally, here’s the big difference between now and decades gone by – once upon a time shows could be good AND popular. Now they’re one or the other. So the Emmys are no longer really a shared national experience. 30 million MASH fans squared off against 40 million ALL IN THE FAMILY fans. Nothing like that exists today, which to me is a shame.
Congratulations to all the nominees. The ceremony will be Monday, September 17th and I plan to review them again for my podcast. A day later is the Jewish High Holiday so I can repent for whatever snarky bitchy thing I say.
And as it has been for the past two decades, comedy -- particularly multi-cams -- will be deemed an afterthought. This morning, KNX focused its pre-nomination report on "Game Of Thrones" and "The Handmaid's Tale"; comedy is invisible. (Sigh.)
ReplyDeleteYour statement "once upon a time shows could be good AND popular. Now they’re one or the other" might as well apply to the movies.
ReplyDeleteKen, please give us your snarky bitchy take on Family Guy's ad of 2012 asking for an EMMY
ReplyDeletehttps://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/family-guy-emmy-joke-seth-macfarlane-330496
This year on Kevin Spacey and Harvey
https://deadline.com/2018/04/family-guy-seth-macfarlane-kevin-spacey-harvey-weinstein-jokes-emmy-mailer-1202376115/
They are desperate as seen in one episode, but why the offensive I cant understand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB3FasMIJE4
Didn't we just have Emmy's? Honestly.
ReplyDeleteWill they bring out Tiffany Haddish to insult the nominees by mangling the pronounciation of their names ?
ReplyDeleteWhat's your feeling on SNL getting a bunch of the comedy acting awards? Seems to me that should be a different category.
ReplyDelete"It's f'ing Ponderous man...Ponderous...it's F'ing Ponderous" - Casey Kasem.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure (the list did not mention "Writing for Comedy series" or "directing for Comedy series") but I think "The Middle" has been completely shut out of the Emmys!
ReplyDeleteIs it "television"? Sure. Even today's physical TV sets bear little resemblance physically or even in some ways technologically with televisions of the past.
ReplyDeleteI
But in terms of content, I've lost interest in the Emmys because I'm one of those Ken was talking to when saying I have had almost no idea about the nominees for a number of years.
More than that, I find very little uplifting about the human spirit on TV these days. That doesn't mean everything has to be happy, happy, happy.
But take MASH as a great example. Even the less optimistic episodes still stirred something positive about the human condition.
If anyone has any suggestions of something not entirely dark and brooding to watch (that also has some basic intelligence) please let me know.
Real life is dark and brooding enough these days.
Game of Thrones really is the last big collective show that is big AND popular. Culture stops Sunday nights when its on.
ReplyDeleteNot for the millions who don't have HBO. This isn't "I Love Lucy."
DeleteI also think it's funny (and very self-referrencial) that you can get an Emmy for hosting the Oscars, a Grammy for providing music for the Tony's, and so on.
ReplyDeleteAs a voting member I've still wondered why the Academy doesn't simply split broadcast and streaming awards. Broadcast can't be as experimental and daring as streaming. It can't be as adult because it has restictions streaming doesn't have. Acting, directing and technical awards can all be the same, but best comedy can be best non-broadcast comedy and best broadcast comedy. Same with drama. It adds only two awards. 4 if you also separate writing. HBO and cable shows would be under the non-broadcast category because you have to pay for them. The terms broadcast and streaming would need to be played with but this could solve problems.
ReplyDeleteYou're not CRISWELL, yet you predicted it. Broadcast got it's tail whipped by cable and streaming. You are also correct in saying that I haven't watched most of the nominated shows. As previously mentioned in this blog, I don't have cable. The only broadcast comedy is BLACK-ISH which I don't watch. NOT because of any racial issues, but because its a weak copy of THE BERNIE MAC SHOW; which I loved, by the way. (Not coincidently by the same creator.) And as I've also stated I don't and won't watch THIS IS US. The only broadcast drama nominated. As for the "late night shows," I CAN'T WATCH them any more. Don't get me wrong. I have no problem with a CLEVER Trump joke. However, these shows have ceased to be funny. For the most part they've just gotten whiney, preachy and self-righteous. I almost forgot. Allison Janney (sp?) was also nominated. But I don't watch MOM. its probably my least favorite of all the Chuck Lorre sitcoms.
ReplyDeleteM.B.
I feel that Conan O'Brien got shut out because his show or more importantly his travelogue specials were not 'political=important' enough. I do not care for the current President but at this point jokes about him are low hanging fruit. Also, the fact that the late, great "Carmichael Show" never was nominated in any of its 3 seasons because NBC didn't have the balls to air the show during the regular season is a travesty. It was topical without being preachy and funny as hell! Also everyone missed out on "The Last Man On Earth" because FOX buried it on Sundays before the local news. Uneven at times but unlike anything else on network or streaming services.
ReplyDeleteNo "Middle" or "Speechless" or Mandy Moore = no interest for me.
ReplyDeleteFriday question for Ken: You wrote a few episodes of "Open All Night" which was based on the British series "Open All Hours." Have you seen the 2016 sequel series "Still Open All Hours" and do you think a show with a format like that would work today?
ReplyDeleteThank goodness that Tatiana Maslany was nominated for her fantastic work on Orphan Blacks final season.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see The Americans nominated again. The final season wasn't all I'd hoped it would be, but it was still very good. Hope they win.
ReplyDeleteJanet Ybarra: The only shows I could come up with are British, so I hope you can find them in the States (they're both BBC, so maybe BBC America?).
Broken - Sean Bean stars as a troubled Catholic priest serving a working class parish in the north of England. The storylines are very bleak, but there are lots of moments of humanity and compassion. It's the best drama I've seen this year.
Detectorists - very different in tone. A funny, sweet dramedy about two friends who share the hobby of metal detecting. If you don't mind small, atmospheric shows, it's a real gem.
Thanks, Tammy. I'll look for those. Usually I tune in to BBC America just for Doctor Who.
DeleteThis season I enjoyed THIS IS US and STRANGER THINGS.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to their S3 return.
Honestly? It's a lot more likely that I've seen whatever ends up winning than it is that I will see the Emmys. Or indeed that whatever the results are will ever manage to reach my conscious mind.
ReplyDeleteI think some of that could be the popular/good divide but most of it is overload. Not just awards shows, but celebrities in general. Even before factoring in the diminished amount of energy left after each day's influx of politics.
I forwarded this piece to my brother, who works at the TV Academy. Very funny. Very on point.
ReplyDeleteI was thrilled to see GODLESS get 6 nominations, including Best Limited Series, Best Actress for Michele Dockery, and Best Supporting Actor for Jeff Daniels. It also got nominated for Best Cinematography, which absolutely HAD to happen—-I’m sure there has been better, but none that so suited my taste. There probably weren’t many “Limited Series” to compete with; I didn’t read much about it, but the backstory was wonderful—a western mining town full of young widows because of a devestating mining accident (this actually happened frequently) a year earlier. They were left to run the town without men. This was late 1880s I would guess. (There’s no politico/social statement involved to ruin it). It wasn’t nominated for writing, I guess, but it was nominated by the Writer’s Guild of America. I don’t know enough about the business to understand why that wasn’t Screenactor’s Guild. That’s it. That’s my comment. (With a tip of the hat to D.B.)
ReplyDeleteNo Emmy nomination for Best Comedy for my pick as the funniest show on TV right now in The Good Place. Meanwhile dramedys like GLOW and Barry get nominations.
ReplyDeleteI like "Detectorists" too! I'm waiting for the next season.
ReplyDeleteI think series 3 of THE DETECTORISTS is its last one.
DeleteIt's nice Anthony Bourdain got some posthumous nominations.
ReplyDeleteEden Sher......so deserving, so ignored. Same for the whole show (The Middle) and all the other wonderful folks involved in front and in back of the camera who made the show a delight to watch for nine years. My hats off to them, I'll miss the show. (PS: I looked the show up on IMDB and the show was only nominated once (one!) for an Emmy award in its entire run, and that was for "Outstanding Make-Up" in 2012 for the episode "The Play"!)
ReplyDeleteI think perhaps because I am a COB (Cranky Old Bastard) I do not watch awards shows anymore as they bore me.
ReplyDeleteAnd again, no multi-cams nominated for Best Comedy.
ReplyDeleteTammy: DETECTORISTS is *wonderful*. *And* it has Diana Rigg, playing the mother of the character played by her daughter, Rachael Stirling.
ReplyDeletewg
The concept of Emmy is obsolete. The vast majority of programs and people nominated are not television related but computer or internet related. Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc. Imagine if the Oscars nominated the Arizona Diamondbacks as best picture. That's the same logic that the Emmy nominations follow. You said that most of the people or programs we probably have never heard of? That's the major reason.
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