HBO felt snubbed by Emmy song 'Put Down the Remote'

HBO executives were apparently a little miffed that the network was not included in the lyrics of "Put Down the Remote," the song sung by Neil Patrick Harris that opened the Emmy awards show Sunday night on CBS.

The lyrics, which pleaded with viewers not to turn away from the broadcast and from television in general, featured plugs for practically every network nominated except HBO, which had 99 nominations. Considering that the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and CBS tried to restructure the Emmys this year by eliminating the presentation of awards for movies and miniseries from the broadcast -- two categories usually dominated by HBO -- in favor of just clips of awards being given, one can understand why HBO might be a little sensitive to slights both real and perceived. 

A CBS spokesman dismissed any controversy over the lyrics to the song, saying the network had not heard any complaints from HBO about it. "They had a great night, the spokesman said, adding, "I can't possibly imagine that complaint from a network so well represented on the broadcast."

-- Joe Flint

Though the audience grew this year, all still is not well in Emmyland

That CBS' telecast of the Emmy Awards managed to end three years of ratings declines against a huge football match on NBC is something of a minor miracle.

According to preliminary numbers from Nielsen, the Emmys averaged 13.3 million viewers, an 8% gain from last year's telecast on ABC, which was the lowest-rated on record. The broadcast was also up 11% among viewers ages 18 to 49 and 9% among adults ages 25 to 54. Not bad, considering that NBC's coverage of the Dallas Cowboys vs. New York Giants match drew 22 million viewers.

CBS' accomplishment aside, all is not well in Emmyland. Next year's awards are on NBC (the show rotates among the networks each year), which means the Peacock will likely push the broadcast back to August so it doesn't interfere with its NFL coverage. That could mean lower ratings. The last time NBC had the show and ran it in August, viewership fell by almost 2.5 million viewers compared with the previous year. A case can be made that NBC and the Emmys might be better off airing the awards on a Monday in September than on a Sunday in August.

Furthermore, the TV deal that the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has with ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox — in which each shells out about $7 million a year for broadcast rights to the show — expires after next year's broadcast. There is some debate about whether the show would do better if it had a permanent home instead of bouncing from network to network. ABC is the home of the Oscars and CBS has been successful with the Grammys and Tonys. A case can be made that stability might help buffer against viewer erosion.

Of course, that has been tried before. Fox had the Emmys for six years, from 1987 to 1992, and ABC also had the award show exclusively briefly in the 1990s.

The problem in the past has been that if one network has the awards on a permanent basis, the other networks will go after them guns-a-blazin'. HBO attempted to make a run for the award show in 2002, and the other networks said if they did, then good luck getting stars to show up. At the time, a CBS spokesman said their network would "no longer participate in the Emmys in any way, shape or form."

"Watch how fast all the others make an extraordinary effort to knock it down," says Tom O'Neil, our resident award expert whose blog Gold Derby is on our sister site The Envelope. 

Isn't that already happening? Rival networks no longer lay down against the Emmy Awards. NBC has football and, while it's true that ESPN used to have football on Sunday night, it was not as big a threat because it was on cable and the NFL is giving NBC better games than it gave ESPN. HBO ran its lineup last night that included "Entourage" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm," while AMC ran a new episode of "Mad Men."

"There was an honor among thieves; those days are gone," observed one network executive. 

O'Neil suggests that, instead of finding one home, the academy should open the bidding to everyone. There would probably be a lot of interest from some cable networks for the awards. While they have the money, odds are the ratings would take a big hit if the show ended up rotating around a bunch of cable networks and broadcast networks. O'Neil argues that award shows should not be judged by their ratings performance, but without a large enough audience, then advertising dollars fade. And without ad dollars, there goes the show.

— Joe Flint

Photo: Neil Patrick Harris. Credit: Kevin Winter / Getty Images.

Now the actors are griping about the Emmy changes

Changes aimed at jazzing up the Emmy Awards aren't going down too well with the Screen Actors Guild, the big labor union that negotiates contracts on behalf of actors. Their complaint? Actors -- who love the limelight, after all -- wouldn't get the "recognition they deserve" under the award show's format tweaks, the guild says.

The board of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences recently approved changes that would shorten the presentation of many movie and miniseries awards by allowing producers to air edited versions of acceptance speeches during the Sept. 20 telecast.

But the move has drawn fire from the Writers Guild of America, a number of leading TV writer-producers and the Directors Guild of America, which called the proposed changes a "material breach" of its agreement with the academy.

Now, the Screen Actors Guild has weighed in. David White, interim executive director of the union, highlighted its concerns in a letter Thursday to John Shaffner, chairman and chief executive of the academy.

"The Screen Actors Guild remains concerned about the recommended modifications which, if enacted, would reduce the level of recognition that our members, and other talent, have come to expect and appreciate through your program," White wrote.

White urged the board to review further changes with "input from the guilds" to "arrive at a mutually agreeable solution to this situation."

A spokesperson for the academy didn't have any comment.

-- Richard Verrier

'For your Emmy consideration' plugs hit the valet ticket

It's either the ultimate example of Hollywood insider marketing or awards fever run amok.

In a car-centric city like Los Angeles, valet parking is as much a part of life as cellphones and sycophantic assistants for Hollywood power players jetting between lunches, meetings, drinks and parties.

Ads on the back side of the valet ticket stubs drivers use to reclaim their cars, of course, have been around for a few years. And "For your consideration" ads promoting movies and TV shows for awards have been a staple in Variety, the Hollywood Reporter and, yes, parts of the L.A. Times much longer (since the recession hit, however, not so much).

But when I was handed my valet stub at a party last night related to the E3 video game conference and saw a "for your Emmy consideration" ad from Warner Bros. for the CBS comedy "The Big Bang Theory" on the back side of it, I had to admit: It's the first time I've seen parking and promotion melded together.

Even at an industry party, the vast majority of attendees are unlikely to be Emmy voters, raising questions just how efficient the ads are at reaching their target audience. Warner Bros. must be really eager for "Big Bang" to drive away with one of those golden statues.

-- Ben Fritz