On September 15th, the 76th annual Emmys was broadcasted on ABC. It’s the night to see who is who on television. The hosts this year were the father-son duo Eugene and Dan Levy. The night began early with the iconic red carpet. The (arguably) most stunning outfits came from the cast of the 16th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. They were all dressed to the nines, the most memorable being Nymphia Wind who was dressed as an elegant banana.
The show’s first award went to Ebon Moss-Bachrach for his supporting actor role in the comedy series “The Bear.” This was the first of many awards for the show, as it ended up winning a total of 11 Emmys. This breaks the previous record of ten for the most Emmys won by a comedy series in a single year (which they held). The big winner tonight was “Shōgun” which won 18 awards and had a total of 25 nominations. This many awards break the all-time record for Emmys won for a single season of television. Although “Shōgun” was just released this year, it has received rave reviews from thousands of people. The most important award they won was Outstanding Drama Series, which is a huge win for such a new show.
Two honorable mentions are “Hacks” and “Baby Reindeer.” “Hacks” won outstanding comedy series. This was a slight shock to the audience as many were expecting “The Bear” to take this award. Although “Hacks” is a comedy, it does a great job of highlighting serious topics like how people must change over time and how society affects that change. The limited series “Baby Reindeer” won four out of the six possible categories for limited or anthology series. It is a show that explores a bartender (Richard Gadd) who is being stalked by a woman (Jessica Gunning). It highlights the male experience which is often discounted in situations like this. Gadd did a great job of showing that men can be victims too and that no one should be scared to come forward if they ever feel violated.
Moving on from the facts, let’s discuss how award shows like the Emmys are losing popularity. The Emmys this year had 6.87 million viewers. This is a 50% increase from last year which only had 4.3 million, but a large decrease from the 2010s when they were getting 11 million viewers. This was a little unexpected as most award shows are rapidly declining in the amount of viewers they obtain. The increase in viewership may be attributed to the fact that many people watched TV series during the pandemic and are slowly starting to care more about shows over movies or live theater. In the grand scheme of things though, many people are starting to not care who wins best actor/actress. What really matters today is how much buzz the show is generating on social media. People would rather find out what shows to watch on TikTok than some super selective committee, like the Emmys. The group that decides who wins an Emmy is called the Television Academy. It is a group of 22,000 members, which may sound like a lot of people but in reality, very few people qualify. You have to be involved in television for at least four years, have been nominated for an Emmy and have been involved in a major work in the last four years. This leads to the selection committee consisting of a very small community.
This community is comprised of people who have worked together. Although the selection is supposed to be unbiased, they are human and it is difficult to avoid voting for a friend or coworker. This explains why it is so common for the same shows to reign supreme over the Emmys. It can be frustrating because this bias limits what people can see in the media. The smaller shows never get a chance to be heard since they do not have the connections that the mainstream shows have. That is why awards shows are dwindling in popularity. People do not value the opinions of these “prestigious” committees anymore. The winners are often predictable, many joking with the phrase “that’s an oscar worthy performance.” Eliminating the surprise takes the fun out of watching the award show.
This formula for shows leads to carbon copies of hit shows being released instead of originality. They know that if they can win an award like an Emmy, then their show will get more recognition. With recognition comes money, so why stray from what has worked in the past? Fans feel duped when their favorite shows are glossed over for a show that has won five other awards that same night. Some shows that never won an Emmy, but fans feel should have, were “New Girl,” “Parks and Recreation,” and “Empire.” They were great shows that had large fan bases but it was not enough to get them into the winning Emmy category. Some shows that have unjustly won an Emmy are “High School Musical” and “Avonlea.” For one, “High School Musical” is a movie, not a TV show, and barely anyone has heard of “Avonlea.” At least for me, the credibility of this award show dwindled when I saw those two names on the list. The decisions the Television Academy makes are questionable at best. An Emmy is a great award to win but it should not be the only thing influencing what you watch. There are plenty of great shows out there that the Emmys gloss over, so I challenge you to find the niche shows that are even better.
Ella Curcuruto 
Grace Nealy 
Hannah Gerber