We taped the Emmys yesterday and watched them tonight. I’m not sure why, but award shows are all about reinventing themselves these days.
It supposedly worked as this year’s telecast pulled in more viewers, although I’d also wager that NPH had something to do with that as well. The overall shake-up, though, seemed to have to do with the order of presentation, grouping types of awards with each other. It was nice to streamline it, but there was a promise of “a complete transformation of the stage” between genres which was wholly unfulfilled.
Also, I’m not sure about Oscar’s decision to have double the number of nominated films this year. First, it puts a serious damper on the annual tradition of watching all the nominated films the Saturday before the actual awards show. Second, I’m not sure it can deliver on either of its promises: that it will allow popular mainstream movies to be nominated or make the race more exciting.
I’ve always also been a bit unclear on the number of nominees per category. Some categories seem to have a set number (usually 5) and some seem to just have as many good nominees as they have that year. Why not be consistent? Either make every category pick 5 nominees or just open it up to however many make it above a certain nomination threshold. It’s sad to see a nominee that clearly won’t win, but it’s also odd to see a film win when it’s in a category of only two.
Ah, well. Award shows are never really about the best of the best anyway. They’re a big political game, and that’s just the way I like them. it’s like trying to reform the election process: an idealistic thought I have once in a while, but ultimately, too much work and doomed to fail.