why the Emmy "leaks" are only making shit worse

Television viewership, in an apparent three-way conspiracy between the video game industry, digital bootleggers and Apple, has been declining for years. And logically, awards show audiences have been depleting as well, mostly because there are too many god damn awards shows which dilute the established ones and confuse people who couldn't pay attention when Friday Night Lights was on Wednesdays (OMFG HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO REMEMBER THAT?) or find their way back to their favourite shows post-WGA strike.

So this year (and I feel like last as well, but I think there was less "leakage"), the Emmy peeps have been rolling out top 10 (in some cases, 11) shortlists for high profile categories. You can read them below because this post isn't about the specifics. (There will be one of those when the noms are announced on July 17. There's no point until it's final.) It's about this leaking move.

This came up in my last year at the paper, where they're always looking for ways to get more people to vote in readers' polls, especially music. The initial idea was to give people a shortlist to vote from, but it sort of took the freedom out of a readers' poll in the first place and stacked the results in a way that would be better on the editorial side. (Believe me, they need to be stacked. Think outside the fucking box, people.)

So that was abandoned, but to increase awareness of the issue itself, the week before the results ran we printed a list of the top three places in every category. I fought it and lost -- the only victory for me was convincing them to make the list alphabetical so it wouldn't be obvious who won what.

My problem was that by revealing a list of what to expect, if there's nobody on that list they care about,
you're effectively turning people away. Which is the opposite of what you're trying to do: appeal to the Lowest Common Denominator by letting them know they'll like what's coming up (instead of being surprised and therefore possibly uninterested, I believe the logic goes).

What this Emmy thing actually does is give the general public -- which is STUPID this is my personal blog I'll say what I want -- an extra THREE weeks to decide NOT to watch the show.

Backfire!


COMEDY SERIES                                    DRAMA SERIES     
Curb Your Enthusiasm                               Boston Legal
Entourage                                                 Damages
Family Guy                                               Dexter
Flight of the Conchords                              Friday Night Lights
The Office                                                Grey’s Anatomy
Pushing Daisies                                        House
30 Rock                                                   Lost
Two and a Half Men                                  Mad Men
Ugly Betty                                               The Tudors
Weeds                                                    The Wire

BEST COMEDY ACTRESS                                                BEST SUPPORTING DRAMA ACTRESS
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?                                   Jane Alexander, Tell Me You Love Me
Marcia Cross, Desperate Housewives                                  Candice Bergen, Boston Legal
America Ferrera,Ugly Betty                                                 Rose Byrne, Damages
Tina Fey, 30 Rock                                                              Jill Clayburgh, Dirty Sexy Money

Anna Friel, Pushing Daisies                                                Sharon Gless, Burn Notice
Felicity Huffman, Desperate Housewives                             Rachel Griffiths, Brothers and Sisters                      
Eva Longoria Parker, Desperate Housewives                       Christina Hendricks, Mad Men
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, New Adventures of Old Christine           S. Epatha Merkerson, Law and Order
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds                                                Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy
Sarah Silverman, The Sarah Silverman Program                  Dianne Wiest, In Treatment                    
                                                                                        Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy

BEST SUPPORTING DRAMA ACTOR
Naveen Andrews, Lost
Bruce Dern, Big Love
Christian Clemenson, Boston Legal
Ted Danson, Damages
Michael Emerson, Lost
Zeljko Ivanek, Damages
T.R. Knight, Grey's Anatomy
William Shatner, Boston Legal
John Slattery, Mad Men
Blair Underwood, In Treatment
Jake Weber, Medium