The Emmy nominations are out and the big news for some is that Conan O'Brien's short-lived Tonight Show got one, whereas Mr. Leno's did not. I suspect the following…
- That while it may have been some voters' way of flipping the bird to Mr. Leno, most were more interested in flipping it to — in order of ascending targets — Jeff Zucker, NBC and network programmers in general.
- That the voters who voted the Coco ballot were voting for him being cancelled, not for what he actually did on the program…or maybe just for what he did on the program its last week or so.
- That Mr. Leno is not bothered much, if at all, about this. He's used to it by now. (Jay is, I'm told, more bothered when reporters say he's never been nominated or won. He was nominated a number of times, albeit a while back, and his Tonight Show won for Best Musical or Variety Series in '95.)
- That Mr. Letterman is more upset that his show wasn't nominated.
- And that Mr. Stewart and The Daily Show will win in that category…or if he doesn't, a Mr. Colbert will.
I came across one site which said that this will have some impact on whether Jay survives on The Tonight Show. It will have none whatsoever. It didn't have any impact that he wasn't nominated for 10+ years. The only thing that will matter there is if (a) the numbers go up and down and (b) if a more promising alternative seems to be possible.
One of these days, I'll have to write a piece on the Emmy Awards. In Hollywood, there is one sense in which they mean a lot because everyone loves to get awards, if only for the potential career/salary boost. In another sense, I don't think anyone really thinks the process is configured to select the best…and the more you know about how that process works, the less likely you are to believe that.
Unless, of course, you win one in which case you might briefly convince yourself that the system is momentarily, and only in your category that year, infallible. But like the Oscars, no one can really say for sure what any particular "win" means…and one seems to care about that.