Last year, the awards drew their smallest audience on record, 11.9 million, according to data tracker Nielsen, a drop of nearly four million on 2014 and the nadir of a quarter-century decline. For music, it’s the Grammys.
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– Whether the Emmys will continue to outpace the much-criticized Academy Awards when it comes to diversity. Theatre people get the Tonys.
As the primetime tele- cast became more crowded, entire genres joined the costume designers and composers: structured and unstructured reality series, as well as reality host; ani- mated series; the newly divided short-subject category; and, perhaps most important, the newly hot documentary and documentary series. The first award was given in 1949 to Shirley Dinsdale, a ventriloquist.
The Creative Arts Emmys are like the Primetime Emmys’ little brother. Originally, it was a publicity stunt that focused exclusively on local Los Angeles programs. Smith and Cumberbatch weren’t even in attendance when they won Emmys.
The ladies of Litchfield Penitentiary find themselves in an unfamiliar place, locked on the outside looking in at the Emmys. In the 1960s, he recalled, the TV academy was forced to call in respected writer-producer Rod Serling (“The Twilight Zone”) to overhaul a voting approach that had similarly veered off course. However, since the 1960’s, this process occurs more on an honor system to accommodate voters schedules. In fact, the first Emmy Award was presented to puppet Judy Splinters (and ventriloquist Shirley Dinsdale) for outstanding television personality in 1949. So, to be eligible, a program would’ve had to air sometime in there.
When the Emmy Award nominations were announced in July, the reaction varied from polite applause to astonishment.
Game of Thrones is once again the most-nominated show, with 23, with limited series The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story and season two of Fargo close behind with 22 and 18 nominations, respectively.
Henry Winkler will pay tribute to the late Garry Marshall, whose TV comedy achievements include the original “The Odd Couple”, “Laverne and Shirley”, “Mork & Mindy” and “Happy Days”, the series that made Winkler a star. This year marks his fifth-consecutive nomination in the variety talk-show category – but he says doesn’t expect to win. The victor who fails miserably to act surprised (even when they were the clear favorite to win) is always my favorite reaction. Knock out performances by Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan were overlooked too, but it’s only a matter of time before the show gets the recognition it deserves. Spacey is the safest choice, a brand name with two Oscars, along with a Golden Globe for “House of Cards”. ABC Go will also stream the red carpet in addition to the show.
Also consider: “Congressional Ball” features a major confrontation, a gala and a nod to a weird Washington tradition, The Hill’s “50 hottest” list.
But TV’s chief currency remains the continuing series, which feeds into Emmy Awards repetition and statistics like these: “Modern Family” and “Frasier” each own five top comedy trophies, with a quartet of awards held by “Mad Men” and three other dramas.
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Also nominated: Liev Schreiber, “Ray Donovan” (Showtime), Matthew Rhys, “The Americans” (FX), Bob Odenkirk, “Better Call Saul” (AMC), and Kyle Chandler, “Bloodline” (Netflix). However, Saturday Night Live earned 15 nominations as well.
