Tube Critic in America's Hometown: How Un-Humanitarian: Emmys Get it Wrong by Denying Reality Hosts Proper Recognition

TV COLUMN

Just when you think they've finally tried to change, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences finds a new way to alienate more viewers.

In order to make room for the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, one of the much-maligned moments in an award show where you can literally--order a pizza, use the restroom, run a brief errand, take delivery of the pizza, eat the pizza, run the dishwasher, flip to a baseball game and watch three innings, type a blog entry, update your status on a social network, tweet about how BORING the speech is, and then unload your dishwasher as the speech is wrapping up--the Emmy Awards have decided to kick out the award for "Best Reality Host" and move it to an untelevised creative arts show that occurs a week earlier.

No Jeff Probst. No Phil Keoghan. No Heidi Klum. No Tom Bergeron. And No Ryan Seacrest. And no fun.

Television is at a crossroads--and it is doing two seemingly-contradictory things: evolving and dying. And the Academy is helping it die instead of evolve. Reality has been one area of television that has been growing and expanding. The academy itself recognized that two years ago when they added the "Best Reality Host" award.

And yet in an age of rapidly emerging technology, there are less and less shows that are must-watch, must see "live". The series finale of "Lost" this year on ABC was met with dozens of writers across the country bemoaning the fact that there are so few shows now--and perhaps none in the future--that will bring together people watching "event" television. Ask a room full of teens what shows they watch each week--and they tend to watch a sample of cable programming, sports, music, shows that cater to teens, and YES, reality television.

The Emmys have not changed enough. Because of agreements with guilds, the director of the show reportedly MUST show all the awards for miniseries and made-for-TV movies. These categories take up about an hour of the broadcast--and almost no viewers in America have seen any of those winning programs. Almost all of these awards go to pay cable, since Networks have mostly stopped producing original mini-series and made-for-TV movies. And with a few exceptions, like HBO's John Adams or Band of Brothers, few of these specials are seen by more than a million viewers in the entire nation.

Reality programming IS what America is watching. 24 MILLION viewers watched a single episode of Dancing with the Stars in March. Millions of Americans have seen Survivor and The Amazing Race. American Idol was the Number One show on Television for years. And Heidi Klum's show may not have the ratings of the other network-reality shows, but she's a super model, so it's safe to say she's well-known throughout the country.

More importantly, just as Major League Baseball is disenfranchising a new generation of viewers by starting World Series games at 8:30 PM on the East Coast, where they often don't end until close to midnight (or later) when children are asleep--thus missing out on a chance to celebrate the most significant events in baseball--the Emmys absolutely NEED young viewers. The Emmy telecast is meant to be educational and a celebration. By showing TV clips throughout the program, viewers are meant to gain an appreciation for the genre of television. Give college students pizza, they'll go to a blood drive. Give away prizes to consumers, people go to a grand opening of a store. Give young American's REALITY TELEVISION awards at the Emmys, they just might also see some really good acting clips that will make them appreciate the other wonderful television--both past and present--that is occurring. You will open up their eyes to the television genre. That SHOULD be the mission of the Academy.

Instead, the Academy want to give a humanitarian award to George Clooney. A film star, now, who really hasn't had the time to spend on television the past several years (other than a Hope for Haiti special). They'd rather pander to a film actor and have him eat minutes of a show dedicated to television--than reward hosts of some of the most popular shows on television. While it's wonderful he's raising money for multiple charities--getting an award in front of other actors in this case is simply the Academy's way of pandering for Clooney fans.

Reality television is being treated like the Cinderella of television. The big sisters (comedy, drama, mini-series, made-for-TV-movie) are all getting to dance at the ball and Reality Television is being told it's not important enough in today's world to take up a couple minutes of a long award show dedicated to TV. Let's only hope that TV viewers and fans can appeal to the academy to let the reality hosts back to the ball--the official Emmy Award ceremony. They've certainly earned their tickets.

Do you agree? What can you do?

1) Email the Academy and let them know you want the reality hosts back:

http://www.emmys.tv/contact

2) Join Entertainment Weekly's online petition or Facebook page to draw attention to this:

http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/08/04/emmys-reality-hosts-creative-arts-primetime-getrealemmys/