The 2008 Emmy's: Why No One Watched

The Primetime Emmy’s Are Quickly Becoming a Bomb

Sep 26, 2008 Erin Konrad

The 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards came off as a boring broadcast with no clear purpose.

Nielsen ratings are in for this year’s 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. Virtually no one tuned into the broadcast, and the few that did were extremely disappointed with the lack of excitement and predictability.

Five Hosts: One Too Many

The Emmy’s first mistake was deciding to go with five hosts instead of the traditional one. The nominees for the first ever category of Best Host served as emcees for the evening. Jeff Probst (“Survivor”), Tom Bergeron (“Dancing with the Stars”), Ryan Seacrest (“American Idol”), Heidi Klum (“Project Runway”), and Howie Mandel (“Deal or No Deal”) all tried to do their best, but they were provided with stale lines and a barely cohesive presentation. They even spent the first ten minutes of the show talking about how they had nothing to say. The show would have been much better off to select one of the five to steer the production along. By using all of the nominees, the audience was left wondering which host to listen to when they all jabbered on together.

The second misstep by the Emmy’s were the boring tributes that aired after every commercial break. The 60th anniversary of the awards should have served as a catalyst for the airing of some of the funniest and most touching clips from classic television shows. Instead, viewers had to suffer through uninspired and dated scenes from past series. This was the perfect opportunity to introduce the best that television has to offer. However, the clips they did show were not impressive. One part of the show featured the stars of “Laugh-In” on the stage. The sketch could have been hysterical, but the actors didn’t really seem all that excited to be there.

The Funniest Moments

The highlights of the evening were Don Rickles and Ricky Gervais. Gervais did a hilarious bit about his win last year, and actually improvised a little with Steve Carrell, who was sitting benignly in the audience. Perhaps the Emmy’s should think about proposing Gervais as next year’s host. At least he got the ceremony to lighten up a bit.

There were some exciting winners: Glenn Close for “Damages,” Alec Baldwin for “30 Rock,” and Jean Smart for “Samantha Who?” However, speeches were uneventful and the winner for Best Drama was “Mad Men”—a beloved critical darling, but a show that is watched by fewer than one million viewers. No wonder the entire broadcast had extremely low numbers—the show with the most nominations is watched by virtually no one.

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