In this era of Peak TV, even Emmy-worthy fare must play the game in order to win the hardware.
The game, of course, being For Your Consideration campaigns. FYC is that magical-yet-tiresome season Los Angeles Emmy voters slog through year after year, a time filled with panels and screening and interactive events meant to impress upon fans the importance of backing the right show in this year’s Emmy race. There’s booze, food, pop-ups, and plenty of swag, but as the TV landscape has grown more crowded – thank you Netflix – the lengths networks and streaming platforms must go to, to renew interest in their respective contenders have gotten … longer? More bizarre? We’re not really sure how to describe the crop of this year’s FYC events except to say they ain’t boring.
Here are some of the wildest 2019 Emmys campaigns. May they influence your voting ballot according to sheer zaniness.
1. Maisel Day
Amazon is betting big on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel this year. How big? Try hosting an entire day of 1950s-themed events around Los Angeles, big. The streaming service dedicated a full 24 hours to wooing Emmy voters and interacting with fans around the city, offering up a map of hotspots meant to transport Angelinos to the New York of old. The show partnered with iconic venues around the city — the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel, Mel’s Drive-in and Pink’s Hot Dogs, as well as Chevron and Drybar — to offer services at 1959 prices for an event dubbed “Maisel’ Day.” So, if you had the chutzpah to brave long lines and L.A. traffic, you could bag discounted malted milkshakes, $0.99 pastramis, and $1 movie tickets in honor of the housewife-turned-stand-up-comic herself.
2. A Pop-Up Guinea Pig Café
What’s better than a hot priest? Not much, honestly, but Amazon did its best to draw in Emmy voters to its pop-up guinea pig café to drum up interest in season two of Fleabag. Sadly, Andrew Scott didn’t wait tables, but there were real guinea pigs ready to be played with and snacks to be munched on. Hillary’s Café, named in honor of the O.G. pig herself, was decorated with show memorabilia — yes, the headless naked woman statue was present — and plenty of photos dedicated to the round little rodent. Boo would’ve been proud.
3. Are You Afraid Of The Drunk, Live
Drunk History’s sixth season earned a handful of Emmy nods and creator Derek Waters thanked fans and voters with a first-of-its-kind live reading of his favorite episode. Waters was able to gather most of the original cast for the skit, including Evan Rachel Wood, Colin Hanks, Jack Brayer, and Seth Rogen to lip-sync the story of how Mary Shelley’s classic novel, Frankenstein, came to be while an inebriated Rich Fulcher narrated.
4. Netflix’s FYSEE Experience
There are plenty of Emmy-worthy shows over on Netflix, so many in fact that the streaming giant erected a massive museum with installations honoring its most popular series. The FYSee event lasted from May to June and was housed at the Raleigh Studios in L.A. Most top contenders saw episodes screened for voters in the 400-seat theater with star-studded panels following. Everyone from Oprah to Bruce Springsteen showed up to awe crowds while promoting their shows, and there were Instagram-friendly pop-ups littering the studio, with immersive bar experiences and a live DJ to keep people movin.
5. PEN15’s Snack Coolers
The Hulu comedy starring Anna Konkle and Maya Erskine as adults playing pre-teen versions of themselves alongside other middle-school-aged actors sent a befittingly nostalgic mailer as part of its Emmy campaign. Writers’ rooms across L.A. received ’90s-themed snack coolers to celebrate the show’s writing nomination, and those coolers were filled with throwback gems like Gushers, Bugles, and of course, Mountain Dew.
6. Jack Ryan’s Role-Playing Event
Amazon threw plenty of weight behind John Krasinski’s action-packed spy thriller this awards season, hosting a panel with the show’s stunt coordinator before offering fans a chance to test out their own espionage skills. The pop-up offered viewers the chance to undergo physical training akin to what Ryan himself would do, before learning some choreography used in the show.
7. Queer Eye Juices
The whole message behind Netflix’s Queer Eye reboot is self-betterment, so it makes sense the streaming service would campaign for Emmys in that same vein. Enter: Pressed Juices. Netflix teamed up with Pressed Juicery earlier this year to offer a limited amount of show-themed beverages in stores across L.A. Each of the Fab 5 were designated a popular juice flavor, so voters could sip on something healthy while contemplating who would win in the Structured Reality Programming category.
The 71st Primetime Emmy Awards will air on Sunday night at 8:00pm EST on FOX.
