Post-show photos of Emmy host Neil Patrick Harris, courtesy of Wire Image
Neil Patrick Harris’s Emmy conquest is now official: The overnight Nielsens indicate that the ratings were actually up over last year’s telecast. That’s significant, because the award show’s numbers have been in decline for several years now.
Barney Stinson’s alter-ego did not defeat football on NBC, which walked away with 18.5 million that night, but an estimated 14.5 million tuned in to the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards telecast, keeping it in second place throughout the evening. (Which, truthfully, isn’t that surprising when one considers that every other broadcast network pretty much got out of its way.)
Of course, a number of viewers would never watch the Emmys — even if Angelina Jolie played host and promised numerous costume changes, all of them involving bikinis. Exhibit A: Today’s IMDb poll. More than 46 percent of respondents did not watch. Geez, what does ol’ NPH have to do to get a witness? (Or few million?)
It’s important to give a credit to all the people who made Harris look good, starting with executive producer Don Mischer, who along with the other producers had the good sense to reorganize the ceremony by genres. Not only did breaking up the telecast by category help it move along more smoothly, but the order of the awards made sense for once — although it would have been nice to see the Emmy for Best Comedy revealed during that category’s turn instead of at the end of the show. You know, to toss us a bone early on.
But Harris took the spotlight to the point of making the overall repeats in all the major award categories palatable, and scored big among the critics.
“Let’s hope Neil Patrick Harris enjoyed hosting Sunday night’s Emmy Awards, because there’s a good chance he’s going to be asked to do it again,” said theHollywood Reporter’s James Hibberd.
Then again, there’s always somebody who poops on the parade; to that end, here’s the account from Tom Shales.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009, 1:00 am and is filed under Commentary, Emmy Awards.
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The Day After: One Last Glance at the Emmys
Post-show photos of Emmy host Neil Patrick Harris, courtesy of Wire Image
Neil Patrick Harris’s Emmy conquest is now official: The overnight Nielsens indicate that the ratings were actually up over last year’s telecast. That’s significant, because the award show’s numbers have been in decline for several years now.
Barney Stinson’s alter-ego did not defeat football on NBC, which walked away with 18.5 million that night, but an estimated 14.5 million tuned in to the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards telecast, keeping it in second place throughout the evening. (Which, truthfully, isn’t that surprising when one considers that every other broadcast network pretty much got out of its way.)
Of course, a number of viewers would never watch the Emmys — even if Angelina Jolie played host and promised numerous costume changes, all of them involving bikinis. Exhibit A: Today’s IMDb poll. More than 46 percent of respondents did not watch. Geez, what does ol’ NPH have to do to get a witness? (Or few million?)
It’s important to give a credit to all the people who made Harris look good, starting with executive producer Don Mischer, who along with the other producers had the good sense to reorganize the ceremony by genres. Not only did breaking up the telecast by category help it move along more smoothly, but the order of the awards made sense for once — although it would have been nice to see the Emmy for Best Comedy revealed during that category’s turn instead of at the end of the show. You know, to toss us a bone early on.
But Harris took the spotlight to the point of making the overall repeats in all the major award categories palatable, and scored big among the critics.
“Neil Patrick Harris? So. Much. Better,” opined USA Today’s Robert Bianco.
“There’s no reason that Harris should not have the Emmy hosting gig for life,” said Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan, aka The Watcher.
“Let’s hope Neil Patrick Harris enjoyed hosting Sunday night’s Emmy Awards, because there’s a good chance he’s going to be asked to do it again,” said the Hollywood Reporter’s James Hibberd.
Then again, there’s always somebody who poops on the parade; to that end, here’s the account from Tom Shales.
What did you think? Did NPH nail it?
This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009, 1:00 am and is filed under Commentary, Emmy Awards. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.