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I just heard this from reliable Hollywood Guild sources. As you know, both the Writers Guild and the Directors Guild publicly protested this stupid decision by the Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences on grounds it violated their longstanding agreements for the Emmycast. I’m glad ATAS came to its senses despite the pressure it received from the networks. The statement follows:
“The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and CBS will present all 28 awards during the live telecast of the 61st Primetime Emmy® Awards. No award categories will be time shifted.
‘This decision was made to mend relationships within the television community and to allow executive producer Don Mischer to focus his full attention on producing the creative elements in the telecast,’ said Television Academy Chairman-CEO John Shaffner in making the announcement.
‘Our goal is to celebrate the year in television, honor excellence and this year’s great achievements with the support of our industry colleagues and our telecast partner, CBS.’”
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Isn’t it fascinating that Todd Levitt is now serving as a cheerleader for the unfortunate leadership decisions in the Academy mess now known as “timeshifting-gate”. This whole PR debacle could have been avoided had the Academy chiefs , knowing they had iron clad clip waiver agreements in return for writing directing categories being presented live, only engaged the wga and dga in advance instead of blindsiding them with this sadly mangled and mis-managed emmy makeover. How ironic it is Mr. Leavitt that those 2003 agreements were in fact signed on the dotted line by – guess who – Todd P. Leavitt.
Our studies show that nothing can make the Emmys more interesting to viewers. They’re just not the Oscars. Never have been. The audience has never really cared. TV stars are not movie stars. Movie stars are global figures. Galactic figures. You can see TV stars all the time, for free. so why tune in? The demographic the Academy wants to attract by brooming the writing and directing awards can only be reached one way in our opinion — that is to have the awards handed out by newsworthy serial killers, school and college mass-shooters, child eaters, etc. Let Greta Van Susteren produce the show, she’s got the contacts in this field. Mischer can’t handle people like that but Greta talks to them all the time. Plus, she can get Sarah “Death Panel” Palin to host the segment where the Academy and public allegedly mourn those who died the year preceeding. Greta’s a friend and supporter and Palin will pull a HUGE number. Only in this way will the demographic the networks and the Academy wish to secure, in fact, show up for the broadcast.