No one could have anticipated that when this Emmy season began several months ago it would end up being one of the strangest—and longest—in history.
Emmy voting has officially begun, and will continue for the next 10 days. TV Academy members will have to hurry up and cast those ballots in the next few days—but then what would have been just a couple weeks wait until the results were revealed has now turned into a five-month waiting period (or perhaps even more?). As we learned last week, the TV Academy and Fox have pushed the Emmys broadcast from its September date to Monday, January 15, 2024, in hopes that the double strike will be resolved by that time. So all these votes will be put into a time capsule until that 2024 date.
I’m Rebecca Ford, and it’s been an unusual few weeks leading up to voting thanks to the actors and writers strikes. Traditionally, these weeks would have featured plenty of events, and lots and lots of interviews with nominees as they campaigned for those wins. But the acting and writing nominees have had to pause all press and FYC opportunities as their strikes continue, and publicists were forbidden by SAG-AFTRA from even pitching their on-strike clients to the press (not that it didn’t still happen, sometimes).
That massive pause did allow us an opportunity to focus on some of the more unsung talents behind some of TV’s top shows. For example, my colleague David Canfield spoke with The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s cinematographer M. David Mullen about the evolution of the show’s look over the past few years. And I spoke with Christa Miller (yes, the actor) about her first Emmy nomination, as the music supervisor of Ted Lasso. Her behind-the-camera work may not get her as much attention as her starring roles on shows like Shrinking,but she told me why she loves doing it—especially for shows she’s also acting in.
And the actors have had their chance to speak too, in a way. I spoke with Jury Duty star James Marsden on the day Emmy nominations were announced (and two days before the SAG-AFTRA strike began) about how he created his character for the unusual hidden-camera show. “First of all, I appreciate you making the distinction that it’s a character,” he told me. “That’s my first little victory there: Let me make sure everybody knows this isn’t really me.”
I did that interview with Marsden on July 12, which now feels like a lifetime ago given how the SAG-AFTRA strike has turned the industry on its head. Even if the strikes are resolved over the next few weeks or months, we’ll be feeling their impact for months or years to come, and not just with the fact that there will be two Emmy Awards shows in 2024 at this rate. Hopefully, we’ll be able to reveal and celebrate these winners sooner rather than later.
No comments:
Post a Comment