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Fixing the Emmys (and other award shows)

Published Monday, September 20, 2004 by seanlmccarthy | E-mail this post

What would God say? Losing builds character.

We watch the Emmys and the other award shows for but a few reasons: 1) We want to see who wins, 2) we want to see what outrageous things the winners and the host might say, and 3) we want to see if anyone looks particularly sexy or silly. That's about it. But just about every awards telecast (these Emmys included) fails to keep things under control. I wasn't the only one to notice that the hurry-up-and-accept-your-award rule did not apply to Al Pacino, while the winners of best comedy (Arrested Development) and best drama (The Sopranos) were cut off in mid-thank-you. Last time I checked, weren't those awards the two biggest ones? And yet, for the sake of holding the show to three hours, the (ahem) Emmy-winning director of the show cued the music for others (ahem, but not himself). If these programs want to save time, why don't they simply cut out all the blather between presenters before each award? Why force the funny when it isn't there? Even host Garry Shandling knew that some of his skits should have been cut short. Just let things flow. Let Elaine Stritch go batty! Let Conan O'Brien go goofy! Just give us viewers what we want! Thank you.