The 2007 Emmy nominations won’t be announced until Thursday, July 19, at 5:35 AM PT, but that’s not stopping the trades from speculating about the potential nominees.
From Variety.com:
New irony saps Emmy’s love for ‘Leno’
Why voters favor Lettermanesque ‘tude over latenight’s top show
By JOAL RYAN
Posted: Tue., Jun. 12, 2007, 5:51pm PT“The Tonight Show” just turned 15 Jay Leno years old. How’s Emmy going to celebrate the anniversary of latenight’s most popular show?
If the past few years are any indication, the answer could be: It won’t.NBC’s long-reigning late-night ratings champ hasn’t been up for the Variety, Music or Comedy Series Emmy since 2003. And the only time it won the category was in 1995.
It’s not as if “Tonight” has suffered in the absence of Emmy love. Through late May, the show was averaging 1.6 million more viewers than its nearest competitor, CBS’ “The Late Show.”
“(Leno) gets to laugh his way all the way home because he keeps winning,” notes Robert J. Thompson, the pop-culture expert.
Chalk it up to another case of dissonance between popularity and awards consideration.
…
The conventional sitcom may be in a commercial lull, but the convention-tweaking comedy talkshow is in a boom time.
The field of potential contenders in the stacked category includes: Comedy Central’s four-time defending champ “The Daily Show,” its upstart sibling “The Colbert Report,” HBO wild-card “Real Time With Bill Maher,” and perennial broadcast-network nominees “Late Show With David Letterman” and “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.”
That’s five. “The Tonight Show” makes six. (NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” last nominated in 2004, makes seven, but that’s another story.)
“The Emmys get blamed a lot for not going out on a limb, but the latenight world is where they do reward edgier programming,” adds Neal Justin, TV critic for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
TV historian Tim Brooks agrees that the Variety, Music or Comedy Series competish is one area where Emmy likes heat, and right now “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” are “hot, hot, hot,” he notes.
Like Johnny Carson before him, Leno appeals to a broad audience with an enduring blend of thoughtfully prepared monologues and signature bits like “Jaywalking” — stuff that isn’t edgy in the way that Colbert attempting zinging Bill O’Reilly is.
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