All awards ceremonies are trivial in nature.
We take them extremely seriously, but in reality they're shameful parades in which networks go overboard in celebrating hot entertainers — the very people we celebrate every single day of the year.
Yet they also serve a practical purpose.
The Oscars can still boost the Best Picture winner's box office grosses substantially if the film is playing in theaters – just not as high as before, but a boom is a boom. Ticket buyers are happy to know what to spend $20 on.
The same is true for shows that win Tony Awards and Best Musical Awards. 2024 winner “The Outsiders” has done great business all summer.
And the Grammys, with their vast and diverse range of music categories, introduces audiences to talents they may never have heard of.
But what about the Emmys?
What good are they? Who – who isn't enrolled anyway – cares about them?
The awards ceremony honoring TV, which airs Sunday, September 15 at 8 p.m. EST on ABC, has always been weird. And dull.
Let's not forget that “Modern Family” has won Outstanding Comedy Series five times in a row. Julia Louis-Dreyfus has given acceptance speeches for “Veep” six times. Good for her, boring for us.
These categories no longer have any meaning.
In the Netflix era, when Oscar-nominated films such as Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” and Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” weren’t shown in theaters, Amazon’s film “Uncle Frank” and Roku’s “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” were up for outstanding TV movie at the Emmys.
How will anything be considered a “TV movie” in 2024?
It's often hard to tell which episodes will be up for awards. For example, the second season of “The Bear” is competing in the comedy categories on Sunday. Season 3 aired on FX in June.
Perhaps the greatest paradox of the show is that television is undoubtedly the entertainment medium Americans are most passionate about, but very few people watch TV's so-called biggest night.
Even though we're just coming out of the “Golden Age” of television, and it's pretty much the background noise of our lives, the Emmy Awards are a completely thoughtless thing.
The last telecast eight months ago was watched by just 4.3 million viewers, due to Hollywood strikes. Broadway is more elite, but the Tonys still drew 3.5 million. The Oscars beat everyone else with 19.5 million.
These days, the public is far beyond the Emmy Awards. Series no longer have 25 episodes per season that air for half a year.
In April everyone watched the nominated miniseries “Baby Reindeer” in one go and immediately moved on to the next series.
Viewers have also never been more curious about what's on TV. They don't need the Emmy Awards to tell them to watch “Hacks.”
Who goes into work on a Monday morning saying, “I'm so happy that 'Succession' won Best Drama!”?
Well, you're right. Jeremy Strong probably would have done that.
I guarantee you the best part of Sunday night's ceremony will be the on-stage reunions of “The West Wing” and “Happy Days,” shows that ended 18 and 40 years ago, respectively.
Now that's what I call relevance!
