This is the most dramatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast Chris Harrison and Lauren z mcomedy for the Home Office in Austin, Texas. They bill it as Television's biggest night last night was the Emmys. I don't want to start off on a negative note, but at one point last night you did look at me and say, is TV dead? So I don't know if that goes along with the moniker of TV's biggest night, but maybe that is the direction.
More about the direction and the art direction and the way they are giving us the Emmys as opposed to television, because the thing is there's good TV out there, right, But the way the Emmys were presented, it's almost as if and this is what it might took away is it was depressing in that I think the entire show to me felt like an in memoriam.
Yes, this is it's feeling old, it's feeling and it is literally because in part, I don't know why we keep doing tributes to things when we're alive and well and making new content. So I remember, I believe it was the Emmys last year they did these little vignettes that were paying homage to iconic TV shows, And I thought at the time that was because that was the seventy fifth EMMIS if I'm remembering correct.
Yeah, they got like the cast of Cheers together and they recreated.
It and they recreated the sets and that was cute, and Okay, it's we're celebrating an anniversary. I understand the thought process. Now we're on the seventy six memis and in the most Hollywood way, here's what we do. When something works, we do it again. We're gonna give it to you again. We're not going to be creative and try something new. We're gonna give you the sequel of
the little segments. And this year they paid tribute to just types of characters they got together, like, oh, these were some TV doctors, these were some TV lawyers, these were some TV but then also just the cast of the West.
Wing I don't know.
The TV dads then was maybe the weirdest thing. They got three really random TV days hearing the.
Trios were so random. Yeah, because it's like, who's going to say yes to this? That's what it is. Who can you get to say yes, we have this site, George.
Lopez, Jesse Tayler, Ferguson get them out of here, Like, I don't understand why we were paying some kind of tribute this year to just general characters like oh, a dad on television.
I mean, that's still a thing.
There's still dads on TVs, and we're acting like it's all times gone by, and it's really making the whole show, the Emmys, and then in part the industry feel like it's past.
It's not a good thing.
My biggest takeaway last night is if you watched, there were some huge shows Showgun, Set Records, Bears.
And Showgun is a brand new show. It's its first season, so we are not dead. Showgun was an amazing show. I loved everything about it. You and I devoured that show, and it rightfully won so many Emmys fourteen plus four sixteen emmys.
You it's set records before we even got to last night. Because the case, TV is not dead. No, and Hacks was was a uh a big winner, pleasant surprise last night as the winner of Best Comedy. It surprised everybody think God Bear didn't Well, I.
Was gonna surprised people, not because the show is not good. Watch Hacks, everybody, I love Hacks, but because people thought the Bear was gonna win.
That's the different topic we'll get in.
I thought it didn't win, and we will discuss because I actually love the show. But TV's not dead. There are good shows. Maybe the networks aren't doing a very good job of cultivating this and putting stuff on TV, but there is great TV out there. Maybe some of the best TV we've had in years is on streamers right now, Hulu, Facts, you name it, all these all
these streamers are killing at Peacock. Even there was even a new exciting reality show that got mentioned last night, thank God, like Amazing Race RuPaul's Drag Race.
Like yeah, the Traders one Traders one awesome.
That that's just been on a couple of seasons and so and that's on Peacock. And so the feel was ABC screaming don't forget us. Remember when we made you feel good seventeen years ago when West Wing was on, and it just made me sad because I'm like, oh, that cute kid do lay Hill. Oh he's a grown ass man with kids and he has a beard.
Listen. I love Henry Lair and walk.
Over and do the jukebox thing, and I love Henry Winkler.
And I love Ron Howard and they're both still you know, working in talented and beyond incredible careers.
But why are we doing the Happy Days set tonight?
I love?
It made no sense, you know what?
I love Henry Winkler for yes, I was old enough to watch Happy Days. He's amazing in Barry, he was so good as the theatrical coach for Bill Hayter and Barry like, he's done great TV in the last five years. We don't need to harken back seventy five years to Happy Days.
And here's the thing, Like interestingly, and this is like same but slightly offshoot of this conversation has won last Night. And Paul w Down's one of the of acts who's also so funny on the show, noted in the speech, Look, it was hard for we didn't know we'd get this show greenlit. The main character is a woman in her sixties. And he said, he actually said, we have an aging population. A big portion of our population is older, and we need to make sure we pay.
Attention to them.
And it's a good point, Like and you just pointed out there's probably a lot of older people.
Watching the show.
So I'm not sitting here saying like don't have older characters, don't tell storylines about older people and being old isn't cool.
I'm not saying that. I'm saying, don't create.
An awards show where you're making your product look like it's gone by and it's dead.
It looked the show smelled of mothballs. So and I agree, by the way, don'ts like, don't throw away the past, like I love paying homage, like putting out whatever, and pair them with young and new. And I love hearing some of the kind of the old stories. There's a way to work it in. It just felt the nonsensical. Yeah, the nonsensical of it and the rhythm of it was really odd.
And while you are spotlighting older actors and older storylines, that's great. You also you got to like nod to everybody. You know, these shows are losing their new audiences. I don't know many people. We were just at family weekend at TCU. I don't know many college kids who watched the Emmys last night. When I was in college, I did watch those awards shows.
So, and it was like that for all the award shows, right, I remember we all watched the Oscars. You watch the Grammys and you know obviously all the ratings for all these shows, and here's.
The key difference, and now I will kind of switch. But another thing I think they did wrong last night making the whole rhythm of the show.
Look our broad review.
You and I were watching it going I kept saying, should we turn it off?
Should we turn it off?
And then you just feel like you got to finish, and I knew we want I wanted to review it having seen the whole thing, so I'm like, I'm a journalist, I gotta do my research, and really watched the whole thing, and it felt sleepy the whole time.
It felt just fine the whole time. Fine.
But one thing that I think threw off the rhythm and where I think you're losing your maybe your new audience. They can see all these celebrities on social media, right, but one way that they cannot see them is in these fun, heartfelt, potentially really funny award speeches where these people are in a really key moment in their career giving an awards.
Stow, this was a good point last night you made.
And they are cutting people off. They've started doing this thing. I don't know if the same producer is producing these Awards shows lately. But the host comes out in the beginning, chastises the audience and tells these nominees, if you get up here, don't talk too long. We're gonna play you off. Don't And you can see it. They get up there, and I would love to know what the timer they're given is. It feels like they're telling seconds.
It's forty five seconds, and that's from the moment they stop on the stage. You could see the teleprompter in the middle and the forty five second clock went on last night, and they are getting kind of down. You made a great point and I couldn't put my finger on it last night. But and this is not on the host. The levees got up and the Ship's creek. If you're a fan of Shit's Creek, then they were
hosting last night. They're trying something new. So it's like, okay, let's get away from the Jimmy Kimmel's of the World and the John Olivers because honestly, those shows are dead now and going away and not many people are watching. So let's try and maybe shift gears and breathe some new life into this and get TV stars up there. And so they did they tried it what they find
interesting and again not on the levees at all. When they come out the host, whoever it is, and kill twenty five to thirty minutes off the top of the show. They have so much time there, and I'll due respect to the levees, I could have cut that in half or probably honestly done away with most all of it off the top of the show, like, well you take a bit, And they took the time from the stars of Steve Martin and Martin Short and Meryl Streep and all these you know, Jeremy from the Bear getting up.
It's like, all these stars are there, and like you said, this is the one thing we can't get on social media, this raw emotion. And the whole point is we have stars in the room. Let them cook, no pun intended to the bear. Let them cook, let them do their thing, and you have admonished them. The show starting with admonishing the biggest stars that you've come to honor and telling them to shut up and get off stage and don't speak their mind.
It is about them.
I mean, look, I know it's about making an award show that you're going to get advertising money for, but the the magic in a bottle that you have. What I remember from most most award shows over the years is the speeches.
You are capturing.
Someone at a magical moment where they've achieved their dreams. They're caught off guard, they'd been nervous about it, and they are just getting up there and you're giving them forty five seconds. I don't think I could make a toast about my birthday this year. Well maybe, but you.
Know what I'm saying time And the worst part is we imagine.
Thanking everyone in your life and career for one of the biggest moments of your life, and you have forty five seconds to do it and be funny and be emotional and speak from the heart.
And by the way, with a ginormous clock ticking down and John Hamm and Meryl Streep staring at you like I can't tell you how nervous you are.
You feel it because every person gets up there and this didn't used to happen in a word speeches and the first thing they do is gough, okay, okay, okay, And you're making some of the most talented people in the world seem awkward and rushed, and you're killing the vibe and instead we're getting these trios of TV doctor and lawyer reunions for no reason.
I think we're god. I think we've really kind of scraped back the scab on what's wrong with these show because I think for a while they got so out of control and they were so long and like, oh these these speech is dron on. So I think the pendulum has sw Yeah, we over corrected, as we tend to do in America. We overcorrected and made it worse. And now we have this show where the hosts take up so much time and the stars are not getting any time. And I've come to see the stars. For example,
the best example last night is Showgun one. I forget which award this was for. Maybe it was at the end when they won Best Drama Series and they got up on stage and quickly killed their forty five seconds, which is insane that the biggest award of the night is Drama and Comedy Series and they finally win. All the stars get up there, the clock sticking down and it's over, and they start playing the music and one of the stars of the show got up and read
something in Japanese. I didn't read it. He gave his speech in Japanese, and thank god somebody in the booth. I give all credit to whoever the producer or director is said to kill the music because it started playing, they started playing them off, and instead what happened was this guy gave an acceptance speech in Japanese and then they gave it in English, and it was one of the more kind of poignant, beautiful points of the entire night. And that's something we wouldn't have had if we had
a thirty second clock. And I don't know if there is a different design to this of Look, just tell everybody you don't need to announce it. The hosts don't need to come out and admonish people. It's not like a debate where we have the rules of the debate. Just let everybody know, Hey, we're going to let you go. But around forty five seconds, fifty seconds, if it's droning on, we're going to put up a clock. You have twenty more seconds to.
Get Can I tell you right this up here's what they should really be doing.
And it's going to get more subjective, but have.
Somebody with a good sense of how good it is up there playing only certain people off or like give more time and tell everybody in advance, give more time to certain awards. Like I hate to say it, but when you know the best I don't know when some of them. When someone is we don't know who the director is. We don't know the best director, and maybe he's really funny and great. Sometimes they are at random,
but nobody knows who that is. But if it's not going well, maybe you cut him off, or maybe those awards.
Get less time. But you're right, best drama, give them a moment.
Big stars, When the biggest stars are on stage, you have done your job. Congratulate because a lot of these like one of the biggest problems with the Oscars is there aren't big stars. You don't have big stars on stage. A lot of the movies we haven't seen a lot of the categories, we don't know the people. But the Emmys and the Globes, I'll put you in here as well. You've done it. You have got the biggest stars on stage. Boom,
you've won. Now let them cook. And what you're doing is you've made them rattling nervous messes and they blubber all over themselves and they stumble and they're nervous and then they just jump off stage and it was funny like who was it the cut? Oh my god, I'm blanking. Who got back on stage? Thank god? Oh is the guy from.
Richard gadd by Rainwah.
The guy from Baby Rainbeard. Thank god? He won several awards because he was so nervous he forgot to think his his parents and his wife and his kids, you know, whatever it was. And it's like, oh, thank god I won again. That was a big admission.
Yeah, not his wife and his kids, but his parents. He got up and he said, I'm like, yeah.
Glaring omission. Thank god I got it.
And he was one of my favorite And I do want to give a shout out because these were some of my I wrote down my favorite speeches of the night.
Richard gad Baby Reindeer.
Jean Smart from hacks Lamar and Morris of New Girl won an award for Fargo, and he was so funny. He said something about like he like slipped up what he said. Then he said, sorry, sorry, I don't want to talk about that. And I know where babies come from. Like he was just being so natural and funny. Greg Burlanty got a big Award, and I thought he was really poignant. So there were some good speeches and it's like I could have watched another minute of Lamar and
Morris up there. He's really funny and he was great and he was having a moment where he like beat Robert Downey JUNR and he said, dude, I got a poster review sign it like, and he's interacting with everybody and he's like Steve Martin sitting right here, and it was great.
So give us more of that, Emmys.
We don't need the awkward bits. You know, it was really awkward last night. And I love them both and this is how I know it was awkward. And the only reason this was pulled off is because she is brilliant. Jane Lynch. They did like two coaches from television and they opened to a locker room. There's Jane Lynch and I forget the gentleman who's the assistant coach on Ted Lasso next to rich Jason Sadeikis and like they do this weird coaching bit and it was just like what,
like who thought? So you know what I don't need is thirty seconds of a weird coaching bit.
It's not even the give it.
Give me Jane Lynch if it's Glee's fifteen year anniversary.
You know what I'm saying. It made no sense.
By the way, get Jane Lynch on stage and right cook. She's brilliant, she's funny, like and I get maybe they're like, look, we can only have so many presenters, so we have to inject people elsewhere. And maybe, you know, I don't have the answer for that, but that isn't the answer. Hearkening back to the good old days. Throughout this show, it just it felt so sad and it made me depressed in like it didn't make me reminisce. I guess.
So I thought. Overall the hosts, yeah, we're fine.
I miss big moments like when Neil Patrick Harris used to do big musical moments that was really fun.
I don't think we didn't really start with anything huge. And I don't know.
I'm a musical theater kid, but I was taught open with a song, and with a song, it makes people feel good.
That's true.
I think maybe the most hot, maybe the most like, let's just be honest about how mad people are about this moment of the night.
Yeah was the bear winning stuff?
Yeah, and you're a fan, but I'm going to read one tweet that caught my eye.
I'm a fan, but I am again, I'm not in an echo chamber. I am open enough to realize that this is a travesty that they were considered a comedy.
So that's the big debate, right is The Bear nominated for multiple but in the comedy categories. And I think the first season it kind of got away with it. People were raising questions like is it really a comedy? But I feel like the first season The Bear had kind of some funnier, wilder moments, but it's gotten more and more drama e and now people are like, Okay.
Not only is it a drama, it's darker than Showgun, really some of the darkest dramas. It's about mental health, it's about suicide, it's about it. It's not even a drama. It's a very dark, heavy drama.
And when you saw those people, I feel like tonight last night, this year's awards show, was the shift where people are going to start talking about how they're mad about it because you saw some of the winners from The Bear going up last night and the other the people nominated in the comedy categories.
You could feel the tension.
Somebody tweeted, the Bear is committing voter fraud and stealing the Emmys.
Oh that's good, And I think, I don't know if this is real.
Somebody sent me a tweet last night from the mom of Hannah Einbinder.
I think is Einbender? How you say your last name? From Hacks?
And she didn't win, and somebody said this is her mom and she tweeted f the Bear because.
She's on the show Hacks, which is a comedy on Avid Elementary. There are some really really good comedies out there. And again, I'm glad Hacks won. And I don't know maybe if that was a because the Emmys we do vote on ourselves, as you know, Academy members or you know sag Affter members. We vote amongst ourselves.
So I'm glad. Look, I'm glad that the Bear won because it is a terrific show. It's great writing, it's phenomenal.
But this is what this is the issue.
But I've never left once in the history of that show, honestly, and I'm not show. I've never left. There was not a joke on the show. There's nothing funny about it there it doesn't even remotely dance around that line of comedy. Like honestly, the Sopranos that was funny. The Sopranos made really light they they you know, amongstilling people. The Sopranos kind of danced that line of like it's kind of funny. The Bear is dark. Wow, I mean there's like when
you're and hopefully people will comment on this. If you binge watch The Bear, you got to take breaks. It's that heavy.
I had to.
Stop watching it because, look, I'm from Chicago, and there are some accurate Chicago things about it, like I do argue with my family, but.
It's non stop. I was like, I'm getting a headache watching this show. They fight so much. So that's why I stopped watching.
And it is a beautiful show. And again I'm I'm a fan. I'm a big fan because I love the culinary world, I love the actors, actresses. It's a phenomenal show. I just I'm even I was a little put off, like this, this shouldn't be and the problem is it's that's hurting TV. Like the battle last night would have been the Bear versus Showgun. That would have been a kick ass Emmy's Battle.
Oh, you're right, they're robbing themselves of headlines.
Yeah, and then the Comedy Battle because but the problem was everyone went in knowing the Bear is probably gonna win and it's going to be annoying.
But you're right, there's so there's actually.
Really good comedies again right now, like Abbot, Elementary, like Hacks, And that's frustrating, and I think it speaks to the reality that Hacks won Best Comedy. They're giving the people on the Bear the acting. They're awarding them because the acting is amazing, but it's not a comedy. Hacks still won Best Comedy. So we got to figure that out. And I'm being serious. I think like people were annoyed last night and it was robbing really really good Awards moments.
It like, we got to figure it out. Rob this Awards moments.
It's just on an election. Here, can we figure out the bear being nominated as a comedy.
It was just simple. It's just like if they applied for comany're like, you're not a comedy at all remotely. But overall, the funny thing is, and Laura and I watched this last night, but grudgingly because there was a great football game on last night, and I know Lauren wanted to watch that. Okay, it was your Chicago Bears. But but no, in all seriousness, this is our business. You know. I'm literally sitting below your Emmy right here,
Emmy Award winning Entertainment reporter, Launa. But we do. We love this industry, and it's an industry we're still very much involved in at Merritt Street and producing TV. And we love this business and we love creating TV. We love watching TV, we love discussing TV. We want it to be good. I want the Emmys to not suck. That would be wonderful. It felt so dated and sad last night, and it's TV is in a good place. We have to evolve or die. Television has evolved. The
streamers are banging. Let's go, let's move on, let's embrace what's going on, and let's embrace these new actors, these new actresses, these new comedians we have. There are so many great comics in the world right now. Let them get on stage and do their thing. I think there is this old school, this old guard, and maybe it's the people that produce the show that are so old
and holding on for dear life. That they're just like you get in this ride, this writer's room of let's do a great modern, innovative show, and they're like, well, let's bring the cast to the love boat together.
Well see that and you just hit it. That's really my overall thing last night. Nothing innovative, nothing new, Like, on the one hand, it's an awards show. On the other hand, try some big things, take some big swings. Because your numbers are down, right.
What's gonna happen? Yeah, what's gonna happen? Right? This is what ratings suck. The ratings are already gonna suck.
This is when you take a risk, and this is when you innovate. This is when you go outside the box. And I think maybe it's what they think is innovating, but it was. Instead it's exactly that. It's well, let's just go back to what people know. Let's bring out TV doctors and lawyers.
Now, I will amend one thing.
Apparently it was the West Wings twenty fifth anniversary, so that is why they got the West Wing. But you know, like bringing new people in, giving them, injecting new life. I'll go back to the awards show speech thing. Briefly, the lead actress who went on Shogun last night. She was played off so quickly. You could have created a new star there. You could have given her a few more minutes and really on a big platform, created a
whole new a lister there. And maybe you did a little bit, but give her the moment because we need a new era of stars. We were watching them age before us.
Our intrepid producer Chrissy just sent this. This is actually really good.
And by the way, welcome Chrissy, she's new on the team.
CHRISI welkom to the family. But Indie Wire Headline put this out. The Emmys could have been an email surprise winners and solid speeches. There is spice up a telecast that felt more perfunctory than celebratory, let alone entertaining.
You know what tells you there's something wrong with the formula two. We were watching some really talented people last night.
Yeah, not be that good at what they do.
I know, like.
Steve Martin and Martin Short and Selena Gomez only murders in the building. They got up and did a little something and it was it was pretty funny. But even they had a few little timing issues and there were some other people who got up and literally it was like like the always Sunny in Philadelphia pair. They were kind of funny, but I'm like, they're way funnier on
their show. There's something about the way we do this and these little bits we try to make in these the scriptedness, and whoever is maybe green lighting things in the writer's room. As you said, we're not letting people do their thing in the right way, and you're making really talented people.
Like look average. Yeah, and these are I mean, like you said, if it wasn't for the brilliance of Jane Lynch, if it wasn't for the brilliance of Steve Martin Martin Short, like just because they're so good at what they do, they pulled off. But it was still only fun. I mean, they were just pulling it off. They weren't great.
That Online's right. It could have been an email. We're getting Martin and Martin Short writing an email. I want to get them doing their stand up, you know what I'm saying.
I don't know if it's And I know these shows are hard. I have actually been a part of some of these before, and I get it. These are it's hard to get all these people together. It's a lot
of moving parts. It's a tough room. But my god, when you have that much talent and then, like you said, the talent was not on display last night, And that's the crazy part, and that I think is the biggest abomination, is that you have so much talent and the talent is not allowed to perform and it's not being showcased.
So well, so.
Look, we started this and we will end it with the same question. Is television dead? No? Did the Emmys make it feel that way? Yes, But to the contrary, the industry we love and adore and have dedicated our professional lives to is I would say, more alive than ever, And that maybe was the biggest frustration. Television is not only not dead, it's thriving. We just need the Emmys to understand that and join us.
I think maybe a subtle difference is I actually thought the other day I was going to text some I was going to text Taylor, our daughter, I'm going to watch TV. And I thought, you know, she doesn't really say that. She's like, I'm gonna go watch this show. I'm gonna go watch Netflix. We don't all just younger
people don't just sit and go watch TV anymore. But they do watch shows, and we need this Awards show about shows to catch up with the vibe and stop making people feel like they're just flipping through the TV channels.
Amen, thank you guys, Thank you guys and Emmys. You have a year here on the clock. Just like you put your your speakers on the clock, you are on the clock. You got twelve months to make it better. And we'll try and do better for you next time, as we always do. It's always been a pleasure. We will do it again next time because we have a lot more to talk about. Thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at the most Dramatic pod ever and make sure to write us a review and leave us five stars.
I'll talk to you next time.