Emmys wrap-up: TV puts its past on display
Tina Fey displays her Emmy for '30 Rock' last night (Jason Merritt/Getty)
Well, you might as well pack up the old Philco and put it out by the curb, because we won’t be needing television anymore… Not after that mockery of a hatchet job of an excuse they called an Emmy awards show. I mean, really? “The Amazing Race” over “Project Runway” for best reality competition show, non-dating, non-drunken skanks category? That’s just a sham and everyone knows it! (You can see the full list of real Emmy Awards winners here.)
Oh, wait… you were looking for more sober analysis?
OK, how about this: In a broadcast that could have used a lot more Neil Patrick Harris and a lot fewer video screens, careful viewers will have noticed the past, present and future of television on display.
The Past: Awards presenter Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ joke about this being the final season of network broadcast television was echoed by Harris in the final seconds of the broadcast, and while it was certainly facetious, it’s not without a kernel of truth. The traditional model of broadcast television is falling apart as audiences splinter. And while the monster hit shows still exist (and Emmy voters, for the most part, still ignore them), it’s getting harder and harder to hold on to those viewers — and harder and harder to justify the costs.
Tina Fey, accepting the award for Best Comedy for her very modestly rated “30 Rock,” thanked NBC for “keeping us on the air, even though we’re more expensive than a talk show.” That’s the reality NBC is facing now — and the other traditional networks will have to face sooner or later: Either they focus on niche programming and fashion themselves in the model of cable channels (which, by the way, did just fine on Emmy night), or they fill their schedules with cheap reality and talk/variety shows. Fey was making a sarcastic quip, but the reality of it isn’t funny for a chaotic business that’s being turned upside down.
The Future: As his creation — the cable-stationed, barely-watched but much-lauded “Mad Men” — took home a second Best Drama award, creator Matthew Weiner cautioned the audience to not be afraid of that chaos. It’s painful now, but as audiences balkanize and spread to niche cable channels, in the end, it will mean more opportunities, more creative outlets and more choices for the viewer, he said. Of course, it’s easy to see the glass as half full when your show — which brings in ratings akin to a farm subsidy vote on C-SPAN — is being hailed as the greatest thing since sliced bread.
The Present: You can argue until you’re blue in the face about whether the Television Academy spends too much time honoring shows no one watches, thereby alienating the very TV viewers it desperately covets, and you might have a point. Or, you might not. But I think we can all agree on one thing: TV is scared to death of the Internet — and it was on display tonight.
Rather than face, embrace and accept the reality of how the Internet has changed American viewing habits, the Academy stuck its head in the sand and prayed we wouldn’t notice. “Dr. Horrible’s Singalong Blog,” the best, most talked-about piece of television programming not to appear on television in the last year, won an Emmy for Special Class — Short Format Live-Action Entertainment Program. Not that anyone would know it; the award was presented to creator Joss Whedon in the non-televised Creative Arts ceremonies a week ago. (Kudos to Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion for reprising their “Dr. Horrible” roles during the Emmys broadcast — see update below.) With Harris as host, the Academy had a golden opportunity to show the world the rich vein of creative programming being done online — not just “Dr. Horrible” or the moonlighting writers and comedians over at FunnyorDie.com — but even the network stuff that ABC and NBC are turning out. Instead, the Academy shoved it all aside and tried, once again, to pretend that the cathode-ray tube is still the only game in town.
As the low ratings of “30 Rock” can attest, that’s proving to be an expensive mistake. But that opening number sure was funny.
Update: Having fun with TV’s strained relationship with the Internet, Neil Patrick Harris “interrupted” the broadcast with this reprise of his Dr. Horrible character. It’s awesome:
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One thing about “old” TV and radio and “mega-hits,” and that is they acted as unifiers of a very large population … a question posed one night was discussed by just about everyone the next morning. I wonder if a completely niche market—each and every product appealing to its own highly compact identifable audience—will increase our chances of becoming even more politically polarized than we already are. Guess we’ll see.
Eddie and Rocky,
You both mention the same interesting scenario — there are fewer (if any) of those nationwide TV moments anymore; those shows or specials that gained massive audience and flowed into national conversation. I can think of the Super Bowl and “American Idol” and maybe that’s it.
And, like news, what does it say about a society that doesn’t enjoy a common entertainment anymore. We can already see what the diversified news landscape is doing — it’s easy to find a news source that agrees with your world view and then ignore everything else. Do we lose something as an culture (either high or low arts) when we can all enjoy our niche entertainment and just ignore everything else?
In response to another comment. See in context »Your clear view of the TV landscape is as refreshing and invigorating as this morning’s (almost) Autumn morning air – love it! It’s also striking how your view of the situation mirrors the current debate about print news vs. internet news. Two sides of the same coin, me thinks.
Also sparks the imagination of a conversation I may have, in the distant future, with grandkids: (in a shaky old-man voice) “I remember when we ALL had to sit around and watch the SAME shows at the SAME time… and do this TOGETHER. We’d watch ’til our eyes would BLEED and out buttocks were numb – and then talk about it for DAYS. Relentlessly. Then we’d do it again. And again. And we LIKED IT. Internet, schminternet – BAH!”