Emmy 2007: Fox To The Core

First off, a word about this year's Emmy winners: Most of us who handicapped the event were sucker-punched. Academy voters did decide to honor "The Sopranos" for Best Drama (along with writing and directing nods), and handed Sally Field a Best Actress award for "Brothers And Sisters." And America Ferrara was shown the love for her breakthrough performance as "Ugly Betty." But most of my predictions--not to mention others--were off the mark. James Spader for "Boston Legal"--AGAIN--over Hugh Laurie and James Gandolfini? "30 Rock" over "The Office?" And Ricky Gervais probably won his Emmy for "Extras" as much for that show as the UK (and American) "Office"! Also, while I think "The Amazing Race" is probably the best of the reality competition shows, this past season was no stunner--and even "American Idol" deserved a win this time around.
Speaking of "Idol," the show's host Ryan Seacrest (who also hosted the overlong Emmy telecast) did himself a favor by making himself scarce. He did OK, but it took Ellen DeGeneres just five minutes to show why SHE should have hosted this year's awards show. (Oops, I forgot--Ellen doesn't have a show on Fox!)
And the fact Fox broadcast the Emmys this year may have contributed to the juvenile behavior of some of the presenters. Let's start with Ray Romano, and his bad joke about his former "Everybody Loves Raymond" co-star Patricia Heaton, who's now on the new Fox sitcom "Back To You" with Kelsey Grammer. Romano's remark: "Frasier's s-----g my wife!" Fox bleeped out the slang for sex, but some critics say it was the network's payback for Romano's disclosure of the main characters' back story on "Back To You."
Not long after, "Grey's Anatomy" co-star Katherine Heigl won an Emmy for best supporting actor; Fox bleeped out Heigl's use of the expletive that begins with "s," after she uttered it in frustration.
But the real controversy came over Sally Field's acceptance speech for "Brothers and Sisters,"which included an opinion against the Iraq war: "If the mothers ruled the world, there would be no g-----n wars in the first place!" Again the censor hit the button, but some liberal bloggers in the States saw it as a sign that Fox's owner, Rupert Murdoch, was displaying his conservative politics. Not so, says the network:
"“Some language during the live broadcast may have been considered inappropriate by some viewers. As a result, Fox’s broadcast standards executives determined it appropriate to drop sound during those portions of the show.”
And of course, with the Federal Communications Commission suing left and right over naughty words and wardrobe malfunctions, why court trouble? Say what you will about Fields' politics, Fox probably did itself a favor by hitting the pause button--and keeping the FCC nannies at bay.
And the price for all this honoring of television's best? According to "Variety,"
"The 'Primetime Emmy Awards' on Fox drew the kudocast's second smallest audience on record Sunday night, averaging 13.1 million viewers, according to preliminary nationals from Nielsen.
This year's audience comes in well below the 16.2 million that NBC garnered for its late-August telecast a year ago and the 18.7 million that watched on CBS two years ago.... The smallest Emmy audience on record remains the 1990 telecast, also on Fox, which drew 12.3 million viewers."
There is one consolation: ABC will do the Emmy honors next year, as part of a rotation among the Big Four networks. It can't do any worse.
Until next time, happy viewing!