Think of it as a giant pep rally on the eve of the big game.
Only this year, there's no big game.
Traditionally, the Emmy Awards telecast announced the start of network premiere week and the new fall season. The television industry understood synergy before synergy was cool.
But this year, for the first time in network history, there is no premiere week, and the new fall series won't start arriving until October after the summer Olympics have run their course on NBC. The fall season is still flying well below most viewers' radar despite the networks' endless on-air promotion.
Yet, the show must go on. And, while tonight's "52nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards" telecast on ABC will probably have one of its smallest national audiences in years, it is still an important event, as well as one that features more local contenders than ever before.
The Emmy has the status of a Pulitzer Prize in the newspaper business. It's the one television industry award with enough clout to keep quality work on the air even when it is not cost-effective by the standards of corporate bean counting. Without big wins on Emmy night, neither "Hill Street Blues" nor "Cheers" would have made it beyond the first season.
"The Emmys helped immensely," said James Burrows, the co-creator of "Cheers." "A lot of people hadn't watched the show at that point, and we were vindicated by the Emmys. With the awards, the show really started to go."
Steven Bochco said he witnessed the same effect for his groundbreaking "Hill Street" cop drama: "Winning eight Emmys that first season really validated us."
Tonight's marquee matchup features the best two dramas on television - HBO's "The Sopranos," about a New Jersey crime family, and NBC's "The West Wing," about a fictional first family. Each arrives at the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium tonight with 18 nominations, the most of any other show. Their success means quality dramas will still get made despite the fact that most will lose money for the networks that air them.
The Baltimore story line at the telecast also features quality drama. "The Corner," the landmark HBO miniseries about one Baltimore family's struggle to escape the world of drugs in a neighborhood devastated by them, has four major nominations: Outstanding Miniseries, Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or Movie, Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries or Movie, and Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries or Movie.
