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puddin:
60th Primetime Emmy Awards - Show
LOS ANGELES, CA - SEPTEMBER 21: TV personaliity Jeff Probst on stage at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards held at the NOKIA Theatre on September 21, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Mathew Imaging/WireImage)
marigold:
Sunday, September 21, 2008
ABC Television Network
PRESS RELEASE
HOST FOR A REALTY OR REALITY-COMPETITION PROGRAM
JEFF PROBST
JEFF PROBST: Thanks, Jimmy.
Thank you very much.
I will be short because we are long, and part of the reason we're long, I know, is the five hosts up here tonight.
This has been a great experience for all of us, and we really feel honored to be a part of this family.
Thank you for letting reality in.
To Mark Burnett and to Leslie Moonves, thank you, quite honestly, for changing my life.
Sean Perry, thanks for keeping me on track.
And Jimmy Kimmel, you tried.
You told us the "nothing" bit may not work, but we stuck to our guns.
And finally, to the "Survivor" family that I work with year in, year out, all over the world.
We are a traveling band of gypsies.
Thank you for making me look good enough to warrant one of these.
I share it with you.
I don't know how we'll divvy it up, but I'm sure the guys in the art department will figure it out.
Thanks for having us tonight.
Good night.
marigold:
Emmy's Reality-Host Experiment Rankles
The five nominees for best reality hosts kicked off the Primetime Emmys with thanks for being welcomed into the Emmy family. I’m not sure the feeling was mutual.
From where I sat, which was neither in the audience nor in front of the TV, the experiment with having all five as hosts fell pretty flat.
But as the nominees came back to the press room, there was an undeniable air of resentment, beginning with Jeremy Piven expressing confusion at the opening bit and peaking—so far—with Kirk Ellis, whose acceptance speech for winning as the writer of John Adams was cut short by the music.
Asked what it was he was trying to say—about the importance of free speech, I believe—he vented at the scourge of reality TV.
“I find it very interesting that we can have 30 minutes of the show devoted to reality hosts,” Ellis said. “But we don’t have enough time for the people who actually create the shows.”
When the winning reality host, Jeff Probst, made it back, he was asked if he caught the bad vibes.
“We knew all along it was going to be tough,” Probst said. “We’ve never done this before except for Ryan.” He thanked Jimmy Kimmel for the advice and guidance he offered, including late-night e-mails. But he said it was difficult coordinating bits among five hosts: “That’s why we came up with nothing.”
Link: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/blog/1380000138/post/70033607.html
marigold:
Another article on Jeff Probst:
TV Review: Emmycast tries to get real, and flops
Are the TV writers still on strike?
There have been boring, listless and otherwise ham-handed Emmy broadcasts among the past 59. Sunday's Emmycast was all of those things. But "The 60th Primetime Emmys" also seemed an inadvertent homage to the 100 days of the Hollywood writers strike last season, when the shows that were able to continue demonstrated what TV without writers is like.
ABC's Emmycast seemed to recapture that dreary world, despite the strike having been settled seven months ago, and the credits for the Emmycast listing writers and script supervisors.
The writing was on the wall (sorry) at the top of the show, when its five co-emcees — Heidi Klum ("Project Runway"), Tom Bergeron ("Dancing With the Stars"), Howie Mandel ("Deal or No Deal"), Jeff Probst ("Survivor") and Ryan Seacrest ("American Idol") — arrived on stage, all dressed in tuxedoes.
They, of course, were also the five nominees in the brand-new reality host category. Each is skilled, charming and/or gorgeous doing whatever series got each of them nominated. But on the Emmy broadcast they shared no chemistry, and seemed at a loss for anything clever to say from the outset.
After their initial strained banter, Probst confessed to the audience, "We have absolutely nothing for you. This is not a joke."
"This is not a bit," Mandel chimed in. "This is reality, and who better to offer that to you?"
Seacrest broke it to viewers that "there is absolutely nothing" on the TelePrompTers.
"We are like on Sarah Palin's bridge to nowhere," Mandel said.
A few more tedious moments and William Shatner burst from his seat in the Nokia Theatre, strode on stage, and gave a tug to Klum's tux, which ripped away to reveal a scanty black sequined number.
Well, at least someone presumably wrote that gag, however lame.
The remainder of the three-hour broadcast was occasionally jolted back to life by the appearance of people who knew to BYOM (bring your own material).
An early presenter, Ricky Gervais, displayed how he's one of the drollest performers on the planet as he recalled his absence last year, when he won a comedy Emmy for his series "Extras."
"I couldn't come last year. Which is a shame. But I STILL won. Do you remember?"
Another presenter, Steve Martin, introduced himself by saying "I'm Steve Martin and I'll be out here in just a minute" — a 40-year-old quip from his standup days that was still fresher than most of the broadcast's material.
Politics, and the presidential race, was in evidence in the exchange between Jon Stewart and his co-presenter, Stephen Colbert. While Stewart tried to list the best miniseries nominees, Colbert began munching from a bagful of prunes.
It was necessary, said Colbert, slipping into character as right-wing buffoon, then added, "Right now, America needs a prune ... This dried-up old fruit has the experience we need."
Stewart looked doubtful. "You know, after eight years of prunes, you would think _"
"Never enough!" Colbert snapped, then ate another. "What could possibly go wrong?"
While the Emmycast seemed to want to validate reality shows, it also crammed in a few pleasant, but extraneous, tributes to favorite scripted entertainment. These clips, a few reproductions of familiar sets from such shows (the WJM newsroom from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," Monk's Diner from "Seinfeld") seemed little more than filler.
Not nearly soon enough, the program was nearing its conclusion. Jimmy Kimmel handled the chore of presenting the best reality host Emmy.
With his customary wryness, Kimmel offered all five nominees a bit of backhanded praise for their shared Emmycast performance.
"Haven't they been sufficient, everybody?" he said.
He was being too kind.
Link: http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2008/09/22/1894826-tv-review-emmycast-tries-to-get-real-and-flops
marigold:
More on Jeff Probst .... Red Carpet:
LIVE at the 2008 Emmys!
Lisa Rinna and Joey Fatone interview Emmy nominated reality hosts Heidi Klum, Tom Bergeron, Howie Mandel and Jeff Probst on TV's hottest night.
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