Fix the Emmys - how would you do it?

Cafe Society
1

Once again, the complaints have started over how the Guest Acting awards are part of the Who Cares - ER, UH, Creative Arts Emmys, which are broadcast on a low-tier cable channel (this year, FXM) a week after the fact. Also once again, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has given its usual response; “We are limited to 26 categories in order to get the show to fit into a 3-hour time slot.”

Here are the categories in the network telecast:
Comedy Series
Drama Series
Miniseries
Made-For-TV Movie
Variety Series
Reality-Competition Program
Lead Actor (Comedy Series)
Lead Actor (Drama Series)
Lead Actor (Miniseries/Movie)
Lead Actress (Comedy Series)
Lead Actress (Drama Series)
Lead Actress (Miniseries/Movie)
Supporting Actor (Comedy Series)
Supporting Actor (Drama Series)
Supporting Actor (Miniseries/Movie)
Supporting Actress (Comedy Series)
Supporting Actress (Drama Series)
Supporting Actress (Miniseries/Movie)
Writing (Comedy Series)
Writing (Drama Series)
Writing (Miniseries/Movie)
Writing (Variety Series)
Directing (Comedy Series)
Directing (Drama Series)
Directing (Miniseries/Movie)
Directing (Variety Series)

Here are what are generally considered to be the “major” ones in the Creative Arts ceremony:
Guest Actor (Comedy Series)
Guest Actor (Drama Series)
Guest Actress (Comedy Series)
Guest Actress (Drama Series)
Reality/Reality-Competition Show Host
Variety Special
Writing (Variety Special)
Directing (Variety Special)
you could also make a case for Animated Program, and possibly Narrator (since it tends to be celebrities - Jeremy Irons won this year) and Character Vocieover (not so much for the actors themselves but for the characters they do) as well.

Note that Writing and Directing for Variety Series and for Variety Special switch between the two ceremonies each year.

You’re in charge of things; what do you do? The three obvious options are:

  1. Exchange some categories - but which ones?
  2. Add more categories to the main telecast (which ones?), in which case you need to remove something else
  3. Extend the ceremony to 3 1/2 or even 4 hours (maybe have a half-hour red carpet show followed by a 3 1/2 hour ceremony); the only problems with this are, (a) it pretty much requires that it air on Sunday, and NBC is going to complain that this would cause a conflict with its NFL coverage, and (b) it has become commonplace to air the Emmys twice in the west - live, at 5:00 Pacific, and then again at 8:00 Pacific when people who don’t realize that it was live are expecting it to be on. Then again, the Grammys and Tonys don’t seem to have a problem with only a tape-delayed version airing out west.
2

The Emmys aren’t really known for padding. Aside from perhaps an opening number or monologue, there is very little expendable filler (unless you want to axe the Obituary Montage). And the Emmys are also quite good for not going over time more than a handful of minutes. So they run things tight and fairly ruthlessly when it comes to the length of speeches.

I’ll have to admit that unquestionably, the funniest bit on any Emmy broadcast was the Variety show Writing category (this year won by The Colbert Report). If I had to add one, it would be that for its entertainment value, though its consistent inclusion would be conspicuous if you didn’t also add the directing one regularly. And there, you’ve added another category in a broadcast that really can’t afford it.

The Academy solves the Guest Actor/Actress dilemma pretty well, I think, by announcing in the broadcast all the nominees and then having the respective winners in both Comedy and Drama come on stage to present the Emmys. So while you don’t see their speeches, you do see them.

Given that there are pretty major names interspersed in all the other categories (except usually the writing ones, which are often where an important series might get its only award), there really isn’t a way to judiciously trim any fat. So I think that delicate balance they have now doesn’t have a lot of room for change without resorting to additional excess.

3

Oh, and here’s the link on this year’s Emmys, starting with the creative winners from yesterday.

4

It turns out that there is a 30-minute red carpet show, but only before the live broadcast (as opposed to the three-hour delayed one in the west that immediately follows the live one), so there’s another option, sort of:
4. Show the speeches for the Guest Acting and Reality Show Host winners during the red carpet show.

“But that happens before I get home out west!” That’s one reason why DVRs exist.

“But I cut my cable cord, and the newer TiVos don’t work with an antenna!” Serves you right for not shelling out for cable service.