The worst Emmys broadcast of 2024.
For an awards show focused on awarding those producing the very best shows, yesterday’s Emmys proved an exercise in irony with a dull and uninspired three hour TV broadcast.
It was an awards show that felt like it was just going through the motions until it was over. It was rote. And dull. And the father/son Levy hosts didn’t help matters much.
Here’s the charitable way to describe it:
The less charitable way (by way of Vox):
I don’t quite get the relationship to the reference, but this is still spot on:
And the on-the-money, accurate summation:
That dullness was reportedly felt in the room. THR notes that there were often empty seats seen in the theatre during the telecast as lots of attendees were leaving to go to the bar.
Nothing about the show was terrible. But, at least if it were terrible, it might have felt like the show was making an effort. Still, folks will see the show as a win, with viewership up 60% from the awards held earlier this year and up on the previous two shows. But at just 6.87 million viewers, the audience is only marginally better than the 6.3M viewers for the COVID-impacted 2020 awards where everything was broadcast over Zoom.
There were at least a few surprises (unexpected in a year where uniformly it was expected that there would be no surprises). The Bear not walking away with everything, particularly Best Comedy was unexpected. Emmy voters once again showing love for Hacks was a proper surprise. Yeah, the season was very well-received by viewers, but quite often with Emmy voters, once they move off a show it is hard to win them back to vote on it again.
I also really liked seeing Will Smith win for writing on Slow Horses. And the Daily Show win & acceptance was very nice.
Presentation is key with an awards show. The function of giving out awards is only as interesting as the investment an audience member has in the awards. But you can stimulate interest in the process with a smart choice of presenter, smart writing, and other elements that can liven it all up.
None of the presenter sections really paid off, with awkward lines and hacky jokes. These are staples for most awards shows, but the best award shows know how to steer around the pitfalls. The choice to theme presenters was kind-of strange. One batch were actors from cop shows and instead of getting iconic TV cops, we instead got Don Johnson (iconic) standing next to Jimmy Smits (great, but his NYPD Blue role is not in the top 20 that anyone thinks of as TV cops) and Niecy Nash-Betts from Reno 911? Strange.
And why did the TV lawyers section not have Calista Flockhart?
The biggest missed opportunity of it all was the stunt reunion introductions. The two big ones being a Happy Days (50th anniversary) reunion with Ritchie and The Fonz, later followed by the cast of The West Wing for a 25th anniversary reunion appearance.
The West Wing cast were presented nicely in an Oval Office replica set, but given trite speeches that would put even early season 5 West Wing dialogue to shame. It was nice seeing fan favourite Janel Moloney given the centre space in the group, but it proved a non-event. I’d almost have preferred seeing an earnest Martin Sheen given solo time up there to offer a speech about the complicated and difficult political times the country sees itself in right now and talk to the show’s themes of valuing duty as citizens. It would have been more interesting than the segment we got, which was just four cast members phoning it in.
[As an aside, you might want to read Janel Moloney’s essay in Airmail this week as she reflected on 25 years of being recognised by fans and how that has played into her life.]
But, back to Happy Days for a bit. Sure, most of the cast of that show are long departed. But there’s no good reason we couldn’t have seen cast members beyond Ron Howard and Henry Winkler, the two cast members who have never been far from the public eye. Why not get Don Most and Anson Williams up on stage at least? I don’t know how up for it 95 year-old Marion Ross would be. There was probably also room for Scott Baio (yeah, I know, I know…) and later-series cast members like Ted McGinley and Cathy Silvers. You could even get Suzy Quatro up on stage (still remembered for her 7-episode run as Leather Tuscadero).
If I could give one message to the producers of these Emmy’s, it’d be:
Upfronts from Paramount… Australia
Later this year Prime Video is launching an Australian version of The Office. The ABC just launched a local version of UK smash hit show Death in Paradise (the confusingly titled ‘Return To Paradise’… confusing only because it seems like a sequel to the UK version and not something entirely disconnected narratively). And Paramount had some success last year with the actually not-too-bad NCIS brand extension NCIS: Sydney.
So, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to hear that an Australian version of the very popular UK sitcom Ghosts is in the works for next year.
Announced at Paramount’s upfronts in Sydney Australia (and no, I didn’t get an invite even though I’m just a few train stops away), this follows the also successful US version of Ghosts, so Paramount are obviously pretty sure they are onto a winner with this as an idea.
And sure, why not. The idea obviously has potential and runs on the board already. Plus Australia hasn’t had a good ghost-based half-hour since Elly & Jools in the early 90s.
What strikes me as odd about the idea of Paramount creating local versions of international shows is that it seems like small thinking. NCIS: Sydney gets a pass because it is the sort of show which can (and already has) find an audience overseas. Viewers would check out an NCIS: Sydney in the same way that there’s one set in Hawaii. There’s a value add-component: The thing you like PLUS an additional exotic element.
Can the same be said for Ghosts as IP? Viewers are more likely to just watch their local Ghosts rather than travel with the show - comedy is a bit more culturally specific (and note that the US Ghosts never really got much buy-in from Australian audiences… it felt very, very American in flavour).
Why aren’t they using the much smaller Australian market as an opportunity to establish new IP and test out ideas? When I look at the local commissions, almost all of it is regurgitated international formats.
“New” shows for 2025 include Ghosts Australia, a local version of Impractical Jokers, yet another effort at a local Big Brother (seriously, enough already with this f**king tired format - show some imagination), returns for The Dog House Australia, Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly Australia, Australian Survivor, House Hunters Australia, I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here (Australia), The Amazing Race Australia, Deal or No Deal Australia, Gogglebox Australia, Taskmaster Australia, Masterchef Australia, and Shark Tank Australia.
Struth.
There were some actual original programs announced: Two new shows in the form of 6-episode drama Playing Gracie and a new studio-based show hosted by Sam Pang. There’s also a spin-off from Masterchef Australia back for a second season called Dessert Masters. Studio panel comedies Have You Been Paying Attention and The Cheap Seats will be joined by Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Gen (a third stab at the Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation format). And there’s a travelogue comedy show from social media’s Inspired Unemployed titled The List and a reality show Airport 24/7.
Is it enough to get me to resubscribe to Paramount+?
Yesterday in the ABW newsletter I mentioned that my P+ subscription has expired. I put it to ABW readers as to whether I should renew. Currently, you (dear, constant reader) don’t seem too keen on me spending the AU$98 for an annual renewal.
Resubscribing to Paramount+, I feel like Jerry Seinfeld buying the new jacket. “What about the money?… What’s money?”
The question for me, a person currently unsubscribed to Paramount+, has to ask is: Is this line-up from Paramount Australia worth me signing up to the platform? The new content is inextricably linked to the broadcast experience of the Paramount-owned Channel 10, which means all the local content is cheap, stripped reality shows.
On that basis, the answer is probably no. But maybe there’s new US imports that I should be keeping an eye out on. After all, in the next few weeks new CBS dramas like Matlock and Watson debut (there are no fresh ideas anymore irrespective of which Paramount market you’re in). But no… both of those shows are announced as launching on Paramount+ in 2025 (if the Mediaweek re-write of the media release is to be believed).
Maybe I will keep that credit card in my wallet after all…
On a related matter… the NRL
An interesting story floating around has Australian Rugby League (ARL) Commission chair Peter V’landys wanting to meet with the Ellison family to pitch them on the idea of spending an obscene amount of money to buy broadcast rights to the NRL football league. The current deal with competitor Nine is up in 2027.
The rationale for Paramount to continue with ownership of Ten in Australia and other international broadcast channels like Channel 5 in the UK hasn’t made a lot of sense for some time - it’s just managing a declining asset. If Paramount still owns any of its international broadcast channels come 2028, I would be very, very surprised. Heck, if Paramount hasn’t made moves to sell Ten come 2025, I’d be equally surprised. Peter V’landys is clearly far more optimistic than I.
Read more: Daily Telegraph
Prime Video shakeup reveals something super interesting
Hwei Loke has been named Head of Prime Video Australia and New Zealand in a shake-up at the streamer, with multiple people being moved around. She reports into Magda Grace, who is Head of Prime Video for Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In a newly created role, Dan Slepak is now Head of Marketplace for Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Usually, Australia gets bundled into management overseeing South-East Asia, but instead Amazon are connecting Australia and New Zealand with the culturally far-more-similar Canada. Seems like a smart move to me. I wonder if other parts of the Amazon business do similar?
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That’s the newsletter for today.
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