Bored with the Emmys? The Paley Center for Media may have a viable alternative. The organization announced today that it has scheduled its first awards program for May, 2012 in New York City. Earlier this year, a committee of TV executives — which included Sony Pictures TV president Steve Mosko and Fox Networks Group CEP Tony Vinciquerra — began discussing the creation of a new awards show that “would take a fresh and distinctive approach” to giving away trophies that would also “attract a broad and diverse viewing audience to a televised event.”
“We believe the awards committee has made significant progress in identifying the ways to achieve our objectives, and we will continue to carefully refine our plans to leverage those assets as we further define the nominations process, voting, judging and award categories in the months ahead,” said Pat Mitchell, president and CEO of Paley, in a statement.
Added Mosko: “We have already received considerable interest from television networks and advertisers, and now that we have announced the time and location of our first show, we will begin right away to translate this interest into substantive discussions.”
The plan is to televise the show, which will coincide with the upfront presentations to advertisers by the broadcast networks. “The networks, advertisers, and much of the top talent will already be in New York at that time, and this venue should make it easier for top talent and industry leaders to participate in the show,” said Vinciquerra. The organization has yet to secure a network that will air the show, but it’s still early.
It’s also unclear what categories will be included in the Paley show, which comes at the time when the broadcast networks are renegotiating with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences about airing future Emmy telecasts. (Each season, the networks switch off airing the awards show, and every four years, the contract is revisited.) As expected, the TV Academy will want to seek a higher license fee from the broadcast networks to air the Emmys, but CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox are balking at the idea of paying a premium for a show that continues to (heavily) honor cable. This year, for example, the show that won for Outstanding Drama was AMC’s Mad Men, while HBO dominated all of the made-for-TV movie categories.
For years, the broadcast networks have tried to make the Emmys more accessible for TV fans, but the Hollywood guilds have been resistant to changes, like limiting the amount of time that’s spent honoring directors. (How much do viewers really care about the person who helms an episode of their favorite show?) There’s also been talk of relegating the made-for-TV movie categories to cable and just featuring the major categories on broadcast, but its hard to say whether the Big Four will succeed in making major changes to the show. In the meantime, Emmy ratings continue to decline, though this year’s telecast hosted by Jimmy Fallon was, at 13.5 million, the highest-rated telecast in four years.
Considering that Paley has honored shows like Buffy, Veronica Mars, Friday Niht Lights and Battlestar Galactica, considering me alternated. Bye-bye Emmys.
Amen, Josh!
I second Jackie’s Amen. It’s nice to see an organization recognize originality.
Considering the context in which I’ve always heard about Paley, I agree with this idea, since it might be the show that ends up honoring those little cult gems that can’t find love anywhere else.
Seriously? I think if an award show not on MTV “honored” Buffy or Veronica Mars in the top 5 of anything, I would NOT take that award show seriously. Kids Choice category maybe?
My guess is you probably never watched either one of those shows. Years ago I started watching “Buffy” after reading some good reviews of the show. I’m glad I did because it was a lot more entertaining than the pretentious stuff that kept getting nominated for Emmys.
Also, note that these awards aren’t just about how “entertaining” (as you put it) a show is- if that were the case, my vote would have been for Spongebob long ago. Those crazy characters!
It’s not just about being entertaining, though. “Buffy” and “Veronica Mars” were both incredibly well-written, well-acted shows, and they were definitely NOT for kids. Just because a show is on the WB/UPN/CW doesn’t make it a kids’ show.
So Jackie- are you actually saying that against a show like Breaking Bad or Mad Men, Buffy should have won?
Also- well aware they are not for kids, my father was obsessed with Veronica Mars (which I always found creepy…) I liked both shows, as well as Gilmore Girls, and probably other shows on those networks. I just don’t think that they are better than most of the shows that get nominated for things, except for Glee. Buffy and VM could have taken the noms from Glee. Are you happy now?
Actually, “Buffy” did receive an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series for the season four episode “Hush” but sadly didn’t win, which is a shame because the episode was so well done. And no, I have not seen “Breaking Bad” or “Mad Men” because I don’t have cable and have not gotten Netflix, but in general, I would consider “Buffy” to be of equal quality to any “serious” drama series. Watch the season five episode “The Body” and then say that “Buffy” isn’t up to snuff. And I would say that Kristen Bell’s consistently outstanding performances on “Veronica Mars” would hold up against any other actress on TV. Lastly, I would not place those shows above “Glee”. “Glee” is included in the Comedy category (“Buffy” and “Veronica Mars” were dramas).
Gee, so literal. All I meant was that the quality of writing and acting on Buffy and VM is definitely superior to Glee’s, an entertaining show yes, but I was disturbed by how much Emmy nomination love it got. Meanwhile, a show doesn’t just get nominated for being really good, it has to be in the top 5-6 of that year, which is very difficult- so you can’t judge a show ALONE, you have to look at the competition for whether it deserves a nom.
Side note: Can I watch the episode “The Body” by itself or do I need to watch the episodes leading up to it to fully appreciate it? Thinking of downloading it.
“The Body” isn’t really part of the whole season’s story arc, but to understand what happens in it, you should watch the episode “Shadow”; it kind of sets the stage for the events of “The Body”.
Season 1 of Veronica Mars was as good as any television show ever. Just because it is set in a young environment doesn’t mean it is a kiddy show. The writing, dialogue and story telling, is remarkable. Significantly above most network shows, and on par with greats like Breaking Bad. Don’t judge the book by its cover.
Wish that this had happened when ‘The Wire’ was still on.
Well, The Wire was on HBO so if they had won anything, they would have been in the same boat with other HBO shows…which would have only bolstered the networks’ complaints against the Emmys
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I think this is a great step forward. It may even knock some sense into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences into recognizing some overlooked gems that the Paley Awards may honor.
This sounds like an excuse for the networks to honor their own shows. They’re clearly pissed that cable shows are dominating the emmys, while they’re televising the event. They said they want to attract a “broad audience,” meaning recognizing shows that get high ratings. So look forward to 2 and a half men and csi racking up the awards.
Soooooo over the whole CSI shows. What state are the filming in now? The fat kid is no longer cute and his voice is changing. Maybe Two and a half men can get an award for most pubesent kid on tv since Earkle’s Jaleel White and CSI for shows with the most state’s employing a cast of actors.
Its about time.How many times have my friends & I talked about shows like Burn Notice & White Collar being awarded for their hard working cast?Now,where can I get tickets for the awards show? I’m ready to show my appreciation for the USA Network “NOW”!
Many an outstanding performance goes unrecognized by the academy simply because the actors work on procedurals and shows that do not have a large audience. For example, actors like William Petersen, Vincent D’Onofrio and Thomas Gibson had incredible arcs on their respective shows. The same applies to Brooke Elliot from Dead Drop Diva, who is amazing. If these awards can bring recognition to people like them, I am glad.
These new awards are unnecessary since the Emmys reached the highest standard this year when they gave a prize to Bucky Gunts.
Everyone wants to see their ‘favorite’ win, but these same people only watch that one show.
No matter what show wins, there will alwasy be the complainers.
To create another ‘TV awards’ show just adds to info overload and they all get mixed up. Example is all the Country Music award shows!