As my late friend Adam Finley reported last month, Ryan Seacrest has been picked to host this year's Emmy Awards. I'm sure that most of you, like me, have already spent enough time lamenting the fact that Seacrest really has no business hosting a show like The Emmys. I guess the producers thought that after American Idol and America's Top 40, The Emmys were the next logical step.
Well, now the producers have decided that Seacrest hosting wasn't bad enough, there's a chance that he may do a number at the beginning of the show.
Think it can't get any worse? Read on.
This year, The Emmys felt compelled to pay tribute to the passing of The Sopranos. Not such a bad idea considering the impact that the show had on television. However, the tribute won't be a retrospective by a celebrity fan or collection of our favorite clips. Instead, the producers have decided to invite the cast of the Broadway show Jersey Boys to perform a few numbers. Get it? Because The Sopranos took place in New Jersey just like the musical. Oh and let's not forget that Frankie Valli played a small role on the show. Can there be a better reason to clutter up a perfectly good awards show with unwanted production numbers than two tenuous connections?
Another planned musical number will feature Tony Bennett doing a duet with Christina Aguilera. I guess they will be revising their famous duet from The Tony & Christina Variety Hour?
Last but not least, the producers are trying to get Justin Timberlake to recreate his duet with Andy Samberg in their Emmy winning song "Dick in a Box." I assume this is for the two people left in America who haven't seen it. In the pool for outraged letters in response to the performance, I am picking 55.
Timberlake has yet to sign on for the performance while Andy Samberg has answered yes over one thousand times.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-13-2007 @ 12:08PM
Carl said...
As long as this keeps up, the Emmy's will be the ugly, little step-brother of the Oscars. Obviously the Emmys will never be more important than the Oscars, but the producers of the show should try to at least inject a little class into their broadcast. Why are we always celebrating the 'now', when it comes to TV and not the glorious moments over its history? It seems like every Oscars broadcast has at least one or two retrospectives, either of a genre, an age or the body of someone's work, yet the Emmys is stuck doing musical tributes to the Sopranos (this year) and reality programming (a couple years ago). If HBO is doing TV right, why not have them produce the Emmy Awards one year?
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9-13-2007 @ 12:25PM
Elf said...
Wonderful. As if the viewers didn't need more of a reason to remember to Tivo the broadcast and start watching about an hour and a half after the actual broadcast time...
By skipping through any time Seacrest is on stage and bypassing any musical number or the tribute to the man who invented the Horizontal Hold knob, as well as commercials and acceptance speeches by any winner who you feel is unworthy (Yes, I'm talking about you, Shatner!), the entire show can be viewed in far more entertaining fashion in well under an hour.
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9-13-2007 @ 12:28PM
RT said...
Well, I guess I'm one of the two people who hasn't seen the aforementioned song. To be honest, I wouldn't know Justin Timberlake if he walked in the room.
Not everyone who watches television is young. Those who write these articles need to realize that the majority of the country doesn't give a damn about the music industry.
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9-13-2007 @ 12:47PM
Machine said...
I don't understand... who watches award shows anyway? If anything interesting or embarrassing happens (ahem... Britney) the clip will be on the nets before the end of the night.
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9-13-2007 @ 12:52PM
Jim said...
First of all, the Tony Bennett-Christina Aguilera duet is very good. I would guess they are performing because his show, "An American Classic," is nominated for four Emmys.
Secondly, I seriously doubt "Dick In A Box" will be performed on prime-time television. Who knows, though. Does Fox have the broadcast?
Finally, The Sopranos was a great series, but I've never understood comments like Paul's, i.e. "the impact it had on television." What did it do? Push the boundaries for language and violence? Lure more subscribers to HBO?
Maybe they are planning to invite the Jersey Boys to perform and cut to black in the middle of their rendition of "Don't Stop Be
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9-13-2007 @ 12:57PM
Scott said...
I'm with elf (#2). I have very little tolerance for awards shows, and the Emmys and maybe the Oscars (depending on the host) are the only ones I endure. But watching live? Not in a few years. I love turning on the TV about an hour and half in and starting the program, skipping through all the assorted chaff, and catching up to it in live time before it's over (it can cut out almost an hour in the middle, when they do all the miniseries awards--do people still watch those things????).
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9-13-2007 @ 1:05PM
tv junkie said...
one more reason not to watch Seacrest....that and the fact that Friday Night Lights or Lost wasn't nominated in any acting categories.
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9-13-2007 @ 1:41PM
superbagman said...
RT, I guess we're the two who've never seen it. We should form a club.
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9-13-2007 @ 2:55PM
Jim said...
P.S. The photo of Ryan Seacrest is printed in reverse, i.e. his shirt is supposed to say, "REUTTE." I thought something was odd when I first saw the photo because the girl on his right (left) actually has a left (right) breast that is bigger then the right (left). ;-)
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9-13-2007 @ 4:08PM
tspack said...
Oh how I love my DVR. I can skip all the crap and get to the awards themselves.
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9-14-2007 @ 9:38AM
scott said...
TV Junkie: I thought that Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn were nominated....I don't care if Seacrest hosts...I don't watch because they give the same awards to the same shows and people every year(gee,yuh think Gandolfini will win...duh)
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9-16-2007 @ 10:28PM
tony Brandon said...
THIS EMMY TELECAST HAS TO BE,UNDOUBTEDLY, THE WORST AWARDS SHOW EVER AIRED.
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11-01-2007 @ 12:25PM
Pamela Bishop said...
I loved seeing all the celebrities and TV stars on the Emmys this year. The hosts from year to year...I don't mind who it is one way or the other.
However, this year's stage set up? Ridiculous!
Whoever thought that would work and ok'd putting it into production needs to be fired.
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