Will ‘SNL’ makeover boost Emmys?
LOS ANGELES – Excited about Monday’s 70th Emmy Awards? Probably not. That’s an educated guess based on shrinking interest in entertainment’s back-slapping ceremonies generally and television’s biggest night in particular.
Last year’s Emmys drew 11.4 million viewers, a smidge above 2016’s worstever 11.3 million. The 2018 Oscars dipped to an all-time low with 26.5 million viewers — still more than double that of its small-screen sibling.
But imagine this: An expert in producing live TV jumps in to invigorate the stale, decades-old Emmy format by orchestrating more laughs, more surprises and fewer trophy presentations.
“Saturday Night Live” impresario Lorne Michaels is producing his first Emmy Awards since the late 1980s, back when the top nominees included “The Golden Girls” and “thirtysomething.”
Ken Davenport, a Tony-Award winning Broadway producer (“Kinky Boots,” “Once on This Island”), said Michaels’ live-TV résumé could give the ceremony hosted by “SNL” faux news anchors Michael Che and Colin Jost what it needs.
“Because of Lorne and the hosts, I think it will have a feeling that something exciting could happen at any moment,” Davenport said.
The dive into the “SNL” talent pool is reminiscent of Michaels’ approach to the 1988 Emmys, which opened with Nora Dunn and Jan Hooks performing as “SNL” characters the Sweeney sisters. Nominee Tracey Ullman declared them the “hippest” Emmys ever.
“Lorne Michaels has on speed-dial enough people to make it a really interesting broadcast,” said Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University professor and director of its Bleier Center for Television & Popular Culture. “If anybody is positioned to do it, he is. He’s from live television and knows how to play to a live audience.”