Your Guide to the 2010 Emmy Awards — Televised Revolution
The 2010 Emmy Awards are set to air today in the US. If you’re anything like me, this means a day of hiding from the radio and websites to avoid results being revealed prior to watching the awards tonight. But, what are your viewing options?
E! Entertainment — The E! red carpet coverage starts off at 7am this morning, concluding at 6pm. That’s right, 11 hours worth of asking “Who are you wearing?”.
Fox8 — Starting at 10am, the awards will be broadcast live and in full on Fox8.
Channel 10 — At 10pm, Channel Ten will air an edited version of the awards show. It runs for two hours, so expect 30 minutes of red carpet fashion, followed by 90 minutes of awards.
Bittorrent — If you are without cable television and want to be able to view the awards show in full, bittorrent is always an option. Setting you back at least 1.5–2gig in data and time spent waiting for a download to finish, this isn’t the most desirable way to access the program, but at least the option is there.
TVU Player — If you’re willing to explore the really dodgy areas of Internet licensing infringement, services like the TVU player will likely have someone illegally streaming the content live. This will burn through data like mad, and the viewing experience isn’t optimal, but on the plus side, it would be live and you get to see all sorts of wacky US advertisements.
Ultimately, it bites that a FTA broadcaster isn’t carrying the show in full. The cut-down highlights show that Ten run each year is better than nothing at all, but it always removes the more interesting aspects of the show (ie awards for writers and other technical professionals who haven’t been shunted to the ‘Technical Awards’ night). There’s no reason why Channel 10 couldn’t run the show in full, starting at 10pm and simply ditch Letterman for the night. Surely the cost for Ten is the same regardless of which version they run, plus ratings would be higher than a Letterman repeat would garner. Hopefully in 2011, with the launch of the new digital multichannel ‘Eleven’, there will be space on the schedule for the show to air in full.
For TV nerds, the Emmy’s are must-see viewing. Sure, watching the Emmys is a hollow ‘empty calories’ experience, but it’s still an important part of the TV calendar.
