My Final Thoughts On This Year's Emmy Show

After last year’s theater-in-the-round fiasco on FOX, ABC could only improve with this year’s show. So did they?

Yes and no…

Using the sets from “Seinfeld,” “The West Wing,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and more was a great way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Emmys. But unfortunately, as the show started running long (within the first half-hour mind you), they didn’t get the attention they deserved.

And why did the show run long yet again? The biggest reason was those five hosts. It was an interesting idea, but it just didn’t work. Why couldn’t they have just set up the presenters from those classic sets and just moved on? Instead we had to see Heidi Klum struggle to read the teleprompter—and struggle even harder to ad-lib. Plus, we had to endure that painful five minutes where the hosts stood around and talked about having nothing to talk about. Oprah’s introduction was classy and funny. They couldn’t have just stuck with that and then handed out the first award?

And poor Ryan didn’t get one single laugh all night. Howie Mandel totally rambled every time he opened his mouth. Jeff Probst was sufficiently smooth, but he was never given anything decent to say. Personally, I think ABC should have just let Tom Bergeron host it on his own. It was his network after all.

Or, they should have given Jimmy Kimmel the respect he deserves and turned it over to him. That way we could have gotten funny one-liners as opposed to long drawn out jokes with lousy punchlines.

The biggest problem with the show is that the producers feel like we have to be entertained instead of just presenting the awards. That’s why we get lame stuff like Josh Groban singing TV themes or Ricky Gervais pestering Steve Carell for five minutes instead of the chance to see the stars we actually tune in to see. Granted, they’re reading lame jokes off a teleprompter, but at least we get to see them.

I think a TV theme song medley was a great idea, but Josh Groban was not the way to go. Why not have some talented actors and actresses sing, like say Neil Patrick Harris and Kristin Chenoweth? That would have rocked, and would have made more sense. Groban was just a lame attempt to boost ratings.

Overall, however, I have to say the show was good. But sadly, it had the potential to be great…