|
Radio,
Film & Television
Radio & Television
. Finally,
The Emmys
Three Strikes and They Might've
Been Out, But ...  | The
original Emmy statue, 1948
Source: AATAS Archives |
First,
the September 11th attacks put them on hold. Then, a second postponement
came when the airstrikes on Afghanistan began the same days they were
scheduled to go on. But finally, the 53rd Annual Emmy Awards managed to
air. As the American Academy of Television Arts &
Sciences -- the organization which runs the Emmys -- noted in their on-line lit,
"the Emmys have never been postponed once, let alone twice." The
press release went on to note that The Oscars, on the other hand, were set back
twice -- once for two days in 1968, because of the assassination of Martin
Luther King, Jr., and once for a day, after the 1981 assassination attempt on
President Reagan. Of course, even though they finally made it
to air time, they had some stiff competition at the beginning of the November
Sweeps month -- one of two months of the year when TV goes all out to win the a
lion's share of the coveted Nielsen Ratings. But their competition was not
what anyone would have expected in November. It was Game 7 of the World
Series -- the first-ever November major league baseball on record.  For
those of you who opted for the Game {we did} and missed the goings on, you can
find a list of the winners on-line at the the official
Emmy site. Here, on the other hand -- FYI -- we thought we'd
spend a little time on some of the less-well-known dimensions of the
Emmys. Call it our little corner of ...
Emmy
Trivia ... The Statue **
After rejecting 47 proposals for the Emmy statuette,
Academy members chose a design by then-television engineer Louis
McManus. He had used his wife as a model. That was in
1948. {See photo, above.} McManus's design was the last model
submitted.
. The wings of the statuette represent
the muse of art; the atom epresents the electron of science.
. One
of the original names proposed for what we now know as the Emmy was actually
"Ike" -- for the television iconoscope tube.
But, understandably, with Eisenhower so prominent at the time, most felt the
country didn't have room for two of them. The alternative they came up
with was "Immy" -- the common reference used for the image
orthicon camera. That name stuck, but was later modified to Emmy,
which Academy members thought would be appropriate for the female symbol.  | Comedian
Red Skelton accepts an Emmy in the early days.
Source: AATAS
Archives |
Each statue
weighs 4-3/4 pounds and is made of copper, nickel, silver, and gold.
Each takes 5-1/2 hours to make, and is handled with white gloves in order to
avoid leaving any fingerprints.
This Year's Emmy Nominations & Awards
There were a total of 416 nominations in 83 categories and
areas. "Areas" are usually specialized technical categories
where more than one award can be given for the same thing.
. Nine
shows received 10 or more nominations this year, including The Sopranos
[23], The West Wing [18], Life with Judy Garland: Me and My
Shadows [13], 61* & Will & Grace [12], Anne
Frank & Frasier [11], and Conspiracy & Sex and
the City [10].
. HBO
topped the list for the greatest percentage of Emmy nominations, with more
than 20% of all nominations, followed by NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX. | Highest
Percentage of Nominations | | Network | Nom's | %
of Nom's | | HBO | 94 | 22.60% | | NBC | 76 | 18.27% | | ABC | 63 | 15.14% | | CBS | 46 | 11.06% | | FOX | 40 | 9.62% | | PBS | 16 | 3.85% | | A&E | 14 | 3.37% | | UPN | 10 | 2.40% | | SHO
(Showtime) | 10 | 2.40% | | TNT | 7 | 1.68% | | BRV
(Bravo) | 5 | 1.20% | | Commercials | 5 | 1.20% | | DISC
(Discovery Channel) | 4 | 0.96% | | Sci
Fi | 3 | 0.72% | | AMC
(Am. Movie Classics) | 3 | 0.72% | | NIC
(Nickelodeon) | 3 | 0.72% | | TLC
(The Learning Channel) | 3 | 0.72% | | VH1 | 3 | 0.72% | | COM
(Comedy Central) | 2 | 0.48% | | AP
(Animal Planet) | 1 | 0.24% | | E! | 1 | 0.24% | | HIST
(History Channel) | 1 | 0.24% | | MTV | 1 | 0.24% | | ODY
(Odyssey Network) | 1 | 0.24% | | SYN
(Syndicated) | 1 | 0.24% | | TECH
TV | 1 | 0.24% | | TOON
(Cartoon Network) | 1 | 0.24% | | USA | 1 | 0.24% | | TOTALS: | 416 | 100.00% |
.
But the Discovery Channel had the highest 'batting
average', i.e., the highest percentage of Emmy awards won per nomination {=
at bat} -- with an average of .750 -- followed by SciFi [.667], Bravo
[.600], and UPN and Comedy Central [.500]. | Highest
'Batting Averages' | | Network | Nom's | Emmys
Won | Batting
Average | | DISC
(Discovery Channel) | 4 | 3 | 0.750 | | Sci
Fi | 3 | 2 | 0.667 | | BRV
(Bravo) | 5 | 3 | 0.600 | | UPN | 10 | 5 | 0.500 | | COM
(Comedy Central) | 2 | 1 | 0.500 | | FOX | 40 | 15 | 0.375 | | AMC
(Am. Movie Classics) | 3 | 1 | 0.333 | | NIC
(Nickelodeon) | 3 | 1 | 0.333 | | PBS | 16 | 5 | 0.313 | | TNT | 7 | 2 | 0.286 | | NBC | 76 | 16 | 0.211 | | CBS | 46 | 8 | 0.174 | | HBO | 94 | 16 | 0.170 | | ABC | 63 | 10 | 0.159 | | A&E | 14 | 1 | 0.071 | | SHO
(Showtime) | 10 | | 0.000 | | Commercials | 5 | | 0.000 | | TLC
(The Learning Channel) | 3 | | 0.000 | | VH1 | 3 | | 0.000 | | AP
(Animal Planet) | 1 | | 0.000 | | E! | 1 | | 0.000 | | HIST
(History Channel) | 1 | | 0.000 | | MTV | 1 | | 0.000 | | ODY
(Odyssey Network) | 1 | | 0.000 | | SYN
(Syndicated) | 1 | | 0.000 | | TECH
TV | 1 | | 0.000 | | TOON
(Cartoon Network) | 1 | | 0.000 | | USA | 1 | | 0.000 | | TOTALS: | 416 | 89 | |
** Source: "Emmy Origin" by Sandra Parker. .. *******
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