Now that the World Cup is concluded, Internet talk can shift from soccer on television to actual television.
Blogs, forums and messengers are once again rife with chatter about TV. The nominations for the 66th Annual Emmy Awards were released July 10 and further fueled the fire.
Seeing as the Emmy Awards are my Christmas, Thanksgiving and Little 500 all wrapped up in one glorious night, I could write an entire newspaper worth of commentary on these nominations. Fear not; I won’t. Instead I will focus on what I see as one of the most important aspects of television, and siphon this column to the topic of writing.
Even when performers excel at onscreen ad-libs and breathe life into the characters and stories, there would be nothing into which they could breathe if not for their writers.They are also the nerds of the television world, so I am obviously going to give them the attention they deserve.
Writing is no exception to the trend of critical acclaim sliding seismically in favor of cable and premium channels.Out of 22 nominations across 4 categories for television writing, the only nominees that are not from a cable or subscription provider are “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” on NBC and “Sherlock: His Last Vow” on PBS.
In the world of television drama and the mini-series and movie categories, this is nothing too drastic. The serious shows of network televisions have been long ousted by the better-budget programming of cable and premium providers.
This year, however, has demonstrated networks’ lost grip on the comedy writing awards.I have been distressed near the point of losing sleep because of “Saturday Night Live” being shut out from a shot at an Emmy it hasn’t won since 2002.
That said, it’s not like the show has been dominating the category lately. This is by no means the first time they’ve not made the list either. But with their 6-year stretch coming to an end, I fear another SNL dark age is about to ensue.
The only thing keeping my hope alive is the four guest actor nominees for when Tina Fey, Melissa McCarthy, Jimmy Fallon and Louis C.K. were hosts.
The end of beloved and quirky comedies “The Office” and “30 Rock” also left a void waiting to be filled by network television’s opponents. I guess NBC cannot truly claim itself to be the same home to comedy that it once was.
Considering the younger target audiences of a lot of television comedy, this is no shock. Network programming is not nearly as adapted for online viewership as their competition. Just ask anyone who knocked out “Orange is the New Black” in one week or less.
