It’s rare that an awards show both rewards the people who really deserve those awards and is itself a rewarding show. But this year’s Emmy Awards was both. Led by spunky, clever host Jane Lynch, the Emmys were delightfully surprising — Margo Martindale! Kyle Chandler! Melissa McCarthy plus all the other Best Comedy Actress nominees onstage together! — and, in most ways, quite satisfactory. READ FULL STORY »
Never have I been so glad to be wrong… in just a couple of Emmy categories. I’m certainly not going to whine about not predicting such superb surprise nominations as Louie CK, Timothy Olyphant, and Walton Goggins.
Yes, I’m doing my due diligence in following up on my Emmy predictions post yesterday; I owe it to you to own up to my miscalculations… and crow about my perspicacity! READ FULL STORY »
Appearing on The O’Reilly Factor to promote his new book Earth (The Book), Jon Stewart was asked by Bill O’Reilly whether he had “Obama remorse.” After jousting jokingly with O’Reilly for a few minutes, Stewart said the problem with President Obama is READ FULL STORY »
On the Friday season premiere of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher played a clip of newly victorious Republican candidate Christine O’Donnell. It was a 1999 segment from Maher’s old ABC show Politically Incorrect, and it’s had READ FULL STORY »
We should have seen this coming.
The “Rally To Restore Sanity,” which Jon Stewart announced on Thursday night’s Daily Show, is the next logical step in Stewart’s seriously humorous attack on extremism — not political extremism, but READ FULL STORY »
Jon Stewart announced a “Rally To Restore Sanity” on Thursday night’s The Daily Show. He also called it, with a certain hopefulness, “A Million Moderate March.” Attempting to gather what he called the “70-to-80 percent” of Americans who aren’t extremists on the right or the left, Stewart invited viewers to come to Washington’s National Mall “on 10/30/10″ to embody common sense under the banner “Take It Down A Notch For America.”
Knowing that appealing to folks who are reasonable and usually “have s— to do,” unlike most protesters, Stewart said he’d READ FULL STORY »
To anyone who placed bets based on my Emmy Awards choices for “who will win,” I offer a half-apology: of the 12 categories on my ballot yesterday, I was correct in only six. I foresaw the victories of Modern Family, Jane Lynch, Jon Stewart, Edie Falco, Jim Parsons, and Temple Grandin.
But I — and you — have a lot to be happy about anyway:
• How great that Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston won acting awards for my favorite TV series of the year thus far, Breaking Bad.
• How wonderful that quality triumphed over READ FULL STORY »
Each week, I’ve been making Emmy predictions in various categories. I thought I’d put them all in one post here, so you can use it to compare your guesses with mine, or use it to win friendly competitions, or just to have a good laugh on me. Remember, these are the ones I think are going to win, not necessarily the shows/people I think should win. Please feel free to supply your own ballot in the Comments section below. Let’s check back in tomorrow morning and we’ll see how I, and you, fared, shall we?
Best drama Lost
Best comedy Modern Family
Lead actor, drama Kyle Chandler
Lead actor, comedy Jim Parsons
Lead actress, drama Julianna READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Martin Crook/Comedy Central/Frank Ockenfels 3/Comedy Central/Mitchell Haaseth/NBCThis week, we’re considering two categories; unlike previous weeks, I’m asserting who I hope will win, since who will win may very well be different.
In the Outstanding Musical, Variety, or Comedy series category, we have:
• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
• The Colbert Report
• Saturday Night Live
• The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien
• Real Time with Bill Maher
Who I Hope Will Win Jon Stewart plowed new ground this season, which is to say, he built up rage against so many worthy targets, and found fresh ways of expressing that anger through humor, that his show achieved a whole new level of comic effectiveness. He deserves the win.
Who May Win My colleague Lynette Rice has laid out an excellent argument for why Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show may take an Emmy. Never underestimate Emmy voters’ desire to catch a wave of public sympathy for a man who was wronged. On the other hand, in an industry town like Los Angeles, a lot of voters look upon Conan as a business loser, and that may work against him.
Shoulda been contenders Where the hell is the nomination for The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson? And The Late Show with David Letterman?
The nominees for Outstanding Made for Television Movie are:
• You Don’t Know Jack
• Georgia O’Keefe
• Temple Grandin
• The Special Relationship
• Endgame
• Moonshot
Who should win Temple Grandin. Away and by far the best tv-movie, Temple Grandin featured a superlative performance by Claire Danes in the title role of the real-life woman with autism who became a significant inventor, and the film itself avoided any easy sentimentality and biopic cliches.
Who may win You Don’t Know Jack Never underestimate Emmy voters as suckers for a movie star: Al Pacino as Dr. Jack Kevorkian gave a fine performance; it’s just that Temple Grandin was a better production overall.
Shoulda been contenders The TV-movie genre is in such poor health, there should actually have been fewer nominees in this category; the excellence just isn’t there these days.
So what do you think of my picks? Do you think Stewart can win over Conan? Do you think someone else should win?
Follow: @kentucker
Betty White is out promoting her new sitcom Hot In Cleveland. Last night, she was on The Daily Show, where Jon Stewart said he watched Golden Girls reruns and admired her “exquisite” timing — nice to see a young man respecting his elders. He also mentioned a Facebook campaign to make White the next READ FULL STORY »
