Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Emmy Nominations: Conan in, Letterman out

"Late Show with David Letterman" failed to garner an Emmy nomination for the first time since it debuted in 1994. Instead, "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" picked up a nod, as Emmy voters couldn't resist sticking it to NBC. (Need I mention that "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" was not nominated?)

"The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report," "Real Time with Bill Maher" and "Saturday Night Live" joined Coco in the Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series category. The Los Angeles Times' Tom O'Neil points out that Maher is "the new Susan Lucci, ranking as the biggest loser in the history of TV's top award, with 22 defeats and no wins for producing, writing and performance."

Maher was also nominated in the Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Special category for his HBO special "...But I'm Not Wrong."

The same five shows were also recognized in the Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music Or Comedy Series category: one of Stephen Colbert's Iraq episodes will compete with the smash hit Betty White-hosted edition of "Saturday Night Live." Also in the running: "The Daily Show"'s Glenn Beck parody, a "Real Time" episode featuring guests Rachel Maddow, Niall Ferguson, Joe Queenan and Michael Ware, and Conan's swan song with Tom Hanks, Will Ferrell and Neil Young.

Other categories in which talk shows were recognized:

Outstanding Art Direction For Variety, Music Or Nonfiction Programming:
"The 82nd Annual Academy Awards," "American Idol: Idol Gives Back," "Saturday Night Live with  hosts James Franco, Jon Hamm and Betty White," "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien," "The 63rd Annual Tony Awards," "The Who Super Bowl Halftime Show"

Outstanding Directing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Series:
"The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report," "Saturday Night Live,""Late Show with David Letterman," "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien"

Outstanding Short-Form Picture Editing:
"The 82nd Annual Academy Awards: John Hughes Tribute," "Horror Tribute"; "American Idol: Dream";  "Jimmy Kimmel Live: The Handsome Men's Club," "The Late Night Wars"; "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: 6-Bee"

7 comments :

  1. Anonymous said...

    SNL nominated over Letterman? The Betty White appearance was good but cannot compensate for the rest of the unwatchable season.

    Hopefully Conan's will win on all the categories his show was nominated and piss off the suits at NBC.

  2. Anonymous said...

    pathetic, this comes down to pissing NBC off, is that it? conan had no viewers, suddenly he gets fired and becomes popular, how ridiculous. two months into his tbs gig and we'll see how popular he is, assuming he'll last 2 months.

  3. Review-Bot said...

    Who would you have nominated then, second Anonymous? Leno? Sorry, but even a big fan probably wouldn't call his shows from the past year Outstanding. It's a shame Letterman's been missing after the amazing role he played in going after Leno earlier this year, but then again, you wouldn't like that one either I guess. Also bummed out Ferguson still isn't nominated, but I guess at this point his production values just need to increase for him to become noticed.

    Like it or not, Conan's last weeks of shows were really good, and before that he was slowly turning the Tonight Show around from the meh-ish past 16+-years of Leno.

    Oh, and if Conan had no viewers, I'd like for you to describe how many viewers Leno has right now, because I think he's drawing even fewer these days. But I guess that's alright.

    And I agree with the first Anonymous: SNL didn't deserve to be nominated, really. And to be honest, Bill Maher, don't really care for him anymore either. Swap in Letterman & Ferguson in those guys' places, and I'd totally like that list.

  4. first Anonymous said...

    Thomas:

    I have liked a handful of segments from Maher's last season but it was not worthy of the nomination. He has lost his edge and become very predictable in the last couple of years.

    I also agree with you that Ferguson's show should have received an Emmy nomination. Ferguson's show might be low production but he makes it up with his quick wit and great interaction with his guests.

  5. Anonymous said...

    During the monologue on tonight's Tonight Show, Leno said the show got four nominations but didn't say that they were for Conan's version. He also pointed out that Letterman didn't get any nominations. How could he do that while not admitting that his version of The Tonight Show also didn't get any nominations? I wish I had recorded the monologue so I could go back and see if he really is that big a hypocrite.

  6. second anonymous: said...

    leno is a weasel, letterman should have been nominated!

  7. Keonyn said...

    Definitely speaks volumes for Leno's character when he's so happy to leech off Conan's nomination the way he is.

    It's also absolutely disgusting that Craig Ferguson gets the shaft yet again, even though his is probably the best late night talk show on right now. Craig proves you don't need big budgets and production values. Heck, sometimes I think the bigger names use their budgets as a crutch to compensate for weaker material and less talent.