Awful Times Five

The 60th Annual PrimeTime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday night.

It was just plain awful. Whoever had the brilliant idea to use the five reality hosts should be shot on the spot. True, each of them probably have some degree of charm, but they were just awful. Awful in the beginning. Awful all night long. The only mildly amusing thing they did was when Tom Bergeron "dropped" Heidi Klum. I chuckled. Jeff Probst in Dragnet?

I did also chuckle when they were all lined up to announce the "winner" and then they went to commercial break. I don't watch Deal Or No Deal, but while surfing TV, I notice that is Howie's "schtick". Hype Hype Hype. Choose a Suitcase. Hype Hype Hype. Now a 6-minute commercial break. Then open the briefcase. That was kinda clever. Jeff Probst seemed surprised that he won. All the camera-mugging and sympathetic counseling he did last season really paid off.

I was happy to see 30 Rock win everything. It's probably one of my Top Five fave shows. Amazing Race won again, and that's another Top Five for me. And Jean Smart is always the best, although her role is kinda weird on Samantha Who? (not in my top 5, but Barry Watson and his buzzcut keep it hovering near the Robert's Top Ten).

The montage of dead actors was OK, since they actually had most of them speaking for a moment or two vs just still pictures. The "catch-phrase" montage was OK. Josh Groban singing Theme Songs was horrid. Memories of MaryTyerMoore, MASH. WestWing were badly produced. The presenters were a mishmash or weirdness. Only the 6 Desperate Housewives seemed to be having any fun.

I do not generally like Ricky Gervais and Steve Carrell, but their "I Made You. I Want My Emmy Back. I sat through Evan Almighty" schtick was a moderately entertaining 8 minutes.

They really need to do something about categories. It's never been fair for shows that produce 8 or 10 episodes to compete against shows that do 22 or 25 a year. Maybe they should specify "limited series" and combine 8-episode seasons of "The Closer" with 7-episode miniseries like John Adams. And the miniseries/movie category is always dullsville since no one ever watches them. And putting Don Rickles in the same category as Letterman and other nightly hosts has always been unfair. A one-time shot cannot compare to nightly perfection.

Maybe this year's disaster will prompt them to make changes. Although I doubt it. I don't mind cable shows winning, although Mad Men is a show that at its highest rating scored 2.2M viewers. Every show on the CW gets that. Minuscule.

Another good thing is that it really didn't last long. It was reported to be 3:08, but I think ABC trimmed some, cuz it was over at 11PM on the West Coast.

Plenty of "ouch" at tvtattle.com.