ABC/KAREN NEAL

Jimmy Kimmel to Host, and Hopefully Roast, Emmys

Few people can mock TV as well as ABC's late-night host, so let's hope the network lets Kimmel be Kimmel.

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Emmys 2011: Getting It Mostly Right — the Awards, at Least

Emmy

When someone asks, “What did you think of the Emmys?” — let’s pretend this is a question that comes up in daily conversation — it can mean two things: the Emmy Awards, and the Emmycast itself. The broadcast this year was not exactly prizewinning, marred by too many flubbed attempts at humor and some, er, [...]

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In Which I Predict the Emmy Winners, Probably Incorrectly

The 2011 Emmy Awards are this Sunday night; I’ll be live-tweeting them as usual, and I’ll have some sort of writeup on the awards the next morning. There are several very competitive categories this year, with, for instance, the ineligibility of Breaking Bad opening space in the drama categories. Who will win? Who should? After [...]

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Emmy Nominations 2011: The Good, the Bad and the Surprises

The Emmy Awards are a big ocean liner that turns very slowly, and this year’s nominations, announced this morning, were no exception: a lot of familiar faces and a few new (or old but underrecognized) entries. So there were a slew of nominations for Mad Men, Modern Family and [Insert Name of HBO's Big Movie/Miniseries [...]

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Welcome to the Emmys, Jane Lynch! Please Leave Sue Sylvester at Home

The good news first. Well, at least it’s potentially good news. Jane Lynch is the host of the next primetime Emmy awards! Yes, I liked Neil Patrick Harris too, but apparently he can’t host everything all the time and he was good enough to endorse Lynch on Twitter and he has a point. Lynch is [...]

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Emmy Nominations: A Big Day for Glee, Lost, Coco—and a Few Surprises

Joel McHale and Sofia Vergara revealed the nominations for the 2010 primetime Emmy Awards this morning. And while TV critics’ complaining about award nominations is as tired a ritual as sweeps stuntcasting, this time out the list was… well, surprisingly defensible. On the comedy side, it was a big year for new series Modern Family [...]

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You Are the Emmys Week: Best Comedy and Drama

For the last day of Robo-James’ Emmy week, my picks (preferences, not predictions) for the best-series nominations (comedy and drama) at the Emmys next week. My spiel, one last time: For my personal picks, I stuck to six per category, so I left out a lot of deserving shows. You don’t have to; I will [...]

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You Are the Emmys Week: Best Actor, Comedy

Today, my picks (preferences, not predictions) for the comedy-actor nominations (lead and supporting categories) at the Emmys next week. My spiel again: For my personal picks, I’ve mainly (but not exclusively) stuck to those actors and actresses nominated by their own shows, and mainly (but not exclusively) assigned them to the categories they were submitted [...]

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You Are the Emmys Week: Best Actress, Comedy

Today, my picks (preferences, not predictions) for the comedy-actress nominations at the Emmys next week. My spiel again: For my personal picks, I’ve mainly (but not exclusively) stuck to those actors and actresses nominated by their own shows, and mainly (but not exclusively) assigned them to the categories they were submitted in, be it lead [...]

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You Are the Emmys Week: Best Actor, Drama

Yesterday, I shared some of my picks–preferences, not predictions–for the Emmy drama-actress categories. Today, it’s the fellas’ turn. To repeat from yesterday: For my personal picks, I’ve mainly (but not exclusively) stuck to those actors and actresses nominated by their own shows, and mainly (but not exclusively) assigned them to the categories they were submitted [...]

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You Are the Emmys Week: Best Actress, Drama

As you read this post, I am currently secluded in the tony vacation getaway known as southeastern Michigan. While I’m out, I’ve directed Robo-James to serve up a series of daily posts asking you whom you’d nominate for this year’s Emmys—whose nominees are announced next week—and sharing some of my own picks. For my personal [...]

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The Emmys Salute Mass Media, May It Rest In Peace

“Amy [Poehler] and I are honored to be presenting on the last official year of network broadcast television,” said Julia Louis-Dreyfus at the Emmy awards last night. She was joking. Or was she? The Emmys, hosted with song and wit by Neil Patrick Harris, was the funniest and most entertaining TV awards-cast in recent memory. [...]

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How to Tick Off Critics, Emmy Edition

Yesterday at the TV critics’ press tour, CBS held a session on the Emmy Awards, trying to explain/justify the format changes designed to ensure that broadcast-network shows (as opposed to cable) get more attention and, hopefully, awards. The awards added nominee slots and revamped the nomination process to create more opportunities for broadcast shows; and [...]

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The Emmys Get a Trim

One more non-press-tour news item: How are the Emmys going to make room for all those additional nominees in its big categories? Apparently, Variety is reporting, by cutting some not-so-big categories from the telecast. The awards for movie and miniseries, and for drama-series writing, will be presented out of primetime. Oh, and guess what? You [...]

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Emmy Nominations: Something for (Almost) Everyone

  The 2009 Emmy nominations came out this morning, bigger and—well, yeah, bigger. To spread the nominee wealth, draw in more fans of more shows (and, maybe, to increase the odds that the broadcast networks won’t get shut out by cable), the major categories were bumped up to six and even seven nominees.  The result: [...]

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You Are Dead To Me, Emmy! Who Must Be Nominated?

If I were a good, traffic-generating blogger, I’d have done a whole series of run-ups this week to the Emmy nominations, category by category. Bad blogger, bad! But since the nominations are coming out tomorrow morning, now’s a good time to sound you out on it. So I ask: if you could pick one performer [...]

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Around the Dial: NPH to Host, FX to Spy, Seacrest to Cash in

Other TV news I hadn’t gotten around to blogging yet:  * Neil Patrick Harris is officially hosting the Emmys. It’ll be legen—wait for it—dary! And that joke is over—wait for it—used! * FX has announced Archer, a spy-spoof animated comedy, for the fall. I’ve seen only a clip, which FX isn’t allowing anyone to share, [...]