The Emmys
Yesterday after the Emmy nominations were announced, I and many other people expressed joy over some names and complete and utter disgust over the omission of others. But last night I got to thinking. The vast majority of America probably doesn’t know how the nomination process works. And even the experts who do know seem to have forgotten momentarily in their shock and outrage over certain omissions. So I’m going to be rational for a moment (then I’ll go back to being mad fangirl).
First of all, in order to even be considered for an Emmy, you (as the actor/writer/producer of show) have to submit your name. that’s right, you have to have the ego and the balls to say hey, I think my work was worthy enough of an award. So right there is an interesting mess. I know that Lee Pace and Anna Friel of Pushing Daisies had to be coaxed into submitting their names. And Adam Baldwin from Chuck didn’t put his name in, but from what I know of Adam’s personality, he’s not the kind of guy who seeks out awards, he prefers to just act.
So once this time period is over, then we get the preliminary nomination list. Now this list was released I want to say about a month ago. I looked at that list. Some of those categories had 20 or more names in them! And in fact some of the names that people are moaning over being left out of the nominations were on the preliminary list. All of the Chuck cast was there (I don’t remember seeing Sarah Lawrence or Ryan McPartlin but I could be wrong). Several BSG cast members were there. Both Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki were there. So people need to realize and the experts need to remember that the final nominee list isn’t the only list there is.
Once this list is generated people get to vote. I think in previous years it was done by panels which of course led to the oft touted “only so many people get nominated/why do certain people get nominated so often” cry. This changed this year to a wider popular vote. Now I don’t know who is voting but I would imagine it’s the various guilds. So they have this huge list to go through. There are often complaints that whoever votes doesn’t watch tv/the shows that the general public/the experts want on the list. I somehow don’t blame them. With categories numerating 20 or more names it can be a daunting prospect.
It’s from this list that the FINAL nominations are produced. Now this year they added a sixth slot to the acting categories and a seventh for the shows which did produce some great surprises; Jim Parsons, Kristen Chenoweth, Simon Baker, Big Love, Flight of the Concords and the most controversial one (from what I’ve seen) Family Guy. Everyone seems to be railing over the fact that the Simpsons was never nominated in the Best Comedy category. That’s because THE PRODUCERS DIDN’T SUBMIT IT THERE!!!! Seth McFarlane took a gamble by putting his show in the Best Comedy category and it paid off. Maybe now the Simpsons producers might be enticed to take this gamble next year and everyone will be happy.
So the next time your favorite show/actor/writer is snubbed, remember how the process works. (Ok I’ll still be angered about snubs, but that’s just the non-rational part of me.)
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