And Your Winner, by Submission…: Analyzing 2010′s Emmy Tapes
July 15th, 2010
Last week, I wrote a piece for Jive TV which described the next step in the Emmy Awards process, and the ways in which this post-nomination period is honestly more interesting for me than the pre-nomination period: as my Twitter followers have noted, I’m a bit obsessive about the submissions process, where the nominated series and performers choose episodes to represent their work over the past season.
It fascinates me because of how unnatural it is: performers can’t simply put together a reel of their strongest moments from throughout the season, they need to find a single representative episode (which, for supporting players, is cut down to only their scenes), and so what they choose is incredibly telling. For example, the cast of Glee have very clearly been instructed to submit episodes which feature big musical performances: Chris Colfer submitted “Laryngitis” because of the show-stopping “Rose’s Turn,” while Lea Michele submitted “Sectionals” based on her take on “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” These might not be their more consistent episodes in terms of overall material, but musically they are character-defining performances, and Glee has decided that this will be its Emmy focus. And yet, for Matthew Morrison and Jane Lynch, their submissions don’t work as well when oriented around their most show-stopping musical performances, and so sometimes a series’ approach doesn’t match with each performer.
It’s a delicate balance, and one which I think best captures the equally maddening and addictive nature of this process, which is why I will now take a closer look at the submissions strategy from a number of series: for a look at how they look as categories, and for more submissions I don’t talk about here, check out Tom O’Neill post at Gold Derby.
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Filed under Emmy Awards
Tagged as 2010, 30 Rock, Aaron Paul, ABC, Alec Baldwin, AMC, Amy Poehler, Analysis, Andre Braugher, Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston, Burn Notice, Chris Colfer, Christina Hendricks, Edie Falco, Elisabeth Moss, Emmy Tape, Emmys, Eric Stonestreet, FOX, Friday Night Lights, Glee, HIMYM, House, Hugh Laurie., James Tyler Ferguson, Jane Lynch, January Jones, Jim Parsons, John Slattery, Jon Hamm, Kyle Chandler, Lea Michele, Lost, Mad Men, Matthew Fox, Matthew Morrison, Men of a Certain Age, Michael Emerson, Modern Family, Monk, NBC, Neil Patrick Harris, Nominations, Nominees, Parks and Recreation, Sharon Gless, Steve Carell, Submissions, Television, Terry O'Quinn, The Big Bang Theory, The Office, Tina Fey, Toni Colette, Tony Shalhoub, TV, Ty Burrell
