Commentary

Emmy Nominations: A Rerun We've Seen Before

It's a tough road being special in TV these days, when everything is instantly available. That goes double for the Emmys.

The new Emmy nominating voting system was supposed to result in showing off unique, new TV shows and new names. Instead, what we got, with yesterday's Emmy nominations, was round-up the usual suspects: "West Wing," Sean Hayes, "The Sopranos," Allison Janney, Tony Shalhoub, lots of HBO, and, yes, Alan Alda (32 times nominated for an Emmy!)

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences created an extra nominating level, a blue-ribbon panel, to determine a perhaps-as-yet-undiscovered nominees--as well as helping the award show's ratings, which have been drifting south over the past few years. .

The new voting system resulted in some small degree of success--Denis Leary of FX's "Rescue Me" nominated for best actor; and TNT's Kyra Sedgwick nominated for best actress for "The Closer."  NBC's "The Office" got a nod for best comedy and its star, Steve Carell, for best actor.

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But what about WB's "Gilmore Girls" and its big talent, Lauren Graham, or UPN's "Veronica Mars" and Kristen Bell. What happen to NBC's "My Name Is Earl" and its star, Jason Lee, or UPN's "Everybody Hates Chris"?  How about Sci-Fi Channel's heavily Emmy- marketed "Battlestar Gallactica"?

Not yet.

Entertainment consumers want something fresh and new. But the last big surprise happened a few years ago when Michael Chiklis won for best actor for FX's "The Shield."  This had viewers running to their electronic guides trying to figure out in their mass of channels whether FX was on channel 564 or 392.

It's hard to create new buzz after a television season has been completed--especially when everything is so immediate, so available. So much so, it's as if you have seen it all before. The Oscars--especially for small independent movies over the last several years (see this year's Oscar winner, "Crash")--are inherently better marketing vehicles for the new and undiscovered. 

The real purpose of the Emmys is as television industry's main annual marketing tool. Part of that charge comes in offering up the new and different. But with TV--increasingly-- everything is almost immediately old news. It's hard to miss anything. It's all TiVoed, or in rerun, or on your Internet, or available via VOD or DVD.

There is no surprise--which is why, maybe, we don't watch as much.

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