As a longtime gamer and TV enthusiast, I find myself deeply moved by the current state of Emmy Awards’ treatment towards Saturday Night Live (SNL). With its rich history spanning over five decades and countless accolades, it’s hard not to feel a pang of sympathy for SNL as it faces yet another year of competing against John Oliver in the Best Scripted Variety Series category.
Apart from a few daytime dramas and news discussions, NBC’s Saturday Night Live (SNL) holds the title of being the longest-running TV show, entering its 50th season on September 28. As we draw closer to the 76th Emmy Awards, scheduled for a few weeks prior, it is the most honored show in Emmy history. Notably, SNL has amassed an impressive 341 Emmy nominations (with Game of Thrones trailing behind at 159) and boasts 89 wins (against GoT‘s 59). Moreover, Lorne Michaels, the creator and producer for all but five seasons, holds the record for most individual Emmy nominations with 106 (Sheila Nevins is second with 77), and has earned the second-most wins for an individual with 21 (behind only Nevins’ 31).
Considering their past successes, it might seem difficult to have sympathy for SNL and Michaels regarding the Emmy Awards. However, this year, I find myself feeling empathetic towards them.
In a testament to the remarkable 49th season of Saturday Night Live (SNL), this iconic show raked in an impressive 17 Emmy nominations, making it the most nominated show from any broadcast network across various categories! The prestigious title up for grabs is Best Scripted Variety Series, a category that also includes Last Week Tonight With John Oliver on HBO. While both shows share the common ground of being weekly programs and bringing laughter to our screens, they are fundamentally distinct in their approaches. It’s fascinating how two of television’s finest creations find themselves competing in the same category, ultimately resulting in one show losing the top Emmy for which it’s eligible every time we share a category. This year, I believe SNL will once again secure this title, making it the winner for the second consecutive year.
Originally, all popular talk and sketch shows like “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson”, “Late Show With David Letterman”, “The Carol Burnett Show”, “SCTV Network”, “In Living Color”, and yes, “SNL” competed under one category named the ‘Best Variety Series’. However, with the rise of numerous television networks leading to an increase in late-night talk shows, the Television Academy introduced two distinct categories in 2015: ‘Best Variety Talk Series’ and ‘Best Variety Sketch Series’.
In the category of sketch comedy series, SNL was consistently nominated alongside a diverse group of newer shows such as At Home With Amy Sedaris, Billy on the Street!, A Black Lady Sketch Show, Documentary Now!, Drunk History, I Love You, America with Sarah Silverman, Inside Amy Schumer, Key & Peele, Portlandia, Tracey Ullman’s Show, and Who Is America? Many of these shows were influenced by SNL, while two, Documentary Now! and Portlandia, had Lorne Michaels as an executive producer. Schumer won in 2015, Key & Peele won in 2016, but since 2017 (when it received a record-breaking 22 nominations), SNL has consistently taken the award through 2022.
In the realm of talk series, you’ll find shows that air four to five times weekly, such as “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, and those that only air once a week, like “Real Time With Bill Maher”, “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee”, and “Last Week Tonight”. For instance, during Stewart’s final season on “The Daily Show”, it surpassed “Last Week Tonight” in 2015 when they were first nominated. However, since then, “Last Week Tonight” has won every year from 2016 to 2022. This has left many connected with competing shows, which typically need to produce high-quality TV more frequently, feeling increasingly frustrated.
As a longtime television enthusiast and industry professional with over two decades of experience, I am thrilled about the upcoming changes to the Emmy Awards categories for talk series and variety series. In my years of watching and analyzing these genres, I’ve noticed a growing overlap between them, making it increasingly difficult to categorize some shows accurately.
However, it’s important to acknowledge that the issue, clearly demonstrated during the initial year of these categories last year when only three scripted variety series were nominated (the same two as this year, along with A Black Lady Sketch Show and Last Week Tonight), is two-pronged. Firstly, Last Week Tonight doesn’t resemble Saturday Night Live in any way, and secondly, there isn’t much else on television today that truly fits the bill.
The majority of the sketches mentioned earlier have been permanently discontinued, except for “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” which has temporarily halted production. This season, only two other shows were eligible for a nomination in the scripted variety series category by the TV Academy. These were CBS’ “After Midnight” and HBO/Max’s “Painting With John.” As a result, we had only two nominees in this category this year.
There must be a better solution to the debate over how to evaluate nightly versus weekly talk shows than to dump a weekly talk show in a category with the preeminent sketch series on TV. The TV Academy should either go back to a single variety category that includes all of the above sorts of shows (hardly ideal, to me); or, if they are OK with having categories with as few as two nominees, as appears to be the case, then create categories called best weekly talk series and best sketch series and let Last Week Tonight and SNL both have a shot at recognition for the areas in which they excel, regardless of the number of competitors they may face.
However, persisting in setting them against one another is like comparing apples to oranges; it’s an unjust comparison, really.
Initially, this tale was published in a solo edition of The Hollywood Reporter’s magazine during August. To get the magazine delivered to you, simply click [here to subscribe].
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2024-08-21 21:55