The biggest winner at the 2015 Emmys was HBO’s dragons n’ murder juggernaut, Game of Thrones. After getting largely ignored by the voting committee for its first four seasons (save a few creative arts awards for costumes and effects and such), the series took home 12 statues this year, including awards for Outstanding Writing, Directing, Supporting Actor, and the biggie, Outstanding Drama Series, upsetting heavy favorite Mad Men in its final season. If you read that last sentence and thought, “Hmm, 12 Emmys sounds like a lot of Emmys,” congratulations on being very perceptive. Twelve Emmys is a lot of Emmys. A record number, in fact, dethroning The West Wing and its nine wins in 2000.
And if you read that last sentence and thought, “Hmm, isn’t it kind of weird that a show that never won a bunch of Emmys suddenly up and won a dozen in its fifth season, even though it was up against the swan song of one of the most decorated shows in Emmy history?,” you are correct again. And there might be an explanation for that. After years of accusations about being out of touch, the Emmys changed their voting system this year. Variety has the details.
In terms of the amended rules, the big change involved dispensing with Blue Ribbon panels, which as conducted shrank the voting pool but insured that those who choose, say, best TV movie actually watched all the candidates. Instead, the selections were opened up to the entire membership, making the process more democratic on its face. What nobody can know, of course, is how many of those members cast ballots based on reputation, in much the way people check off Superior Court judges and school board members on election day.
So, basically, the Emmys replaced a system where a group of experts played favorites in smoke-filled back rooms with a system where people who haven’t seen all the shows choose a winner based on what they did watch or heard was good, neither of which are “ideal,” in the purest sense of the word. But no system is ideal (except the one where I get to choose the winners myself over a long weekend in a luxurious Monte Carlo penthouse paid for by the committee, which I will continue to push for), and people are going to get angry no matter which method you choose, so hey, what are you gonna do?
None of this is to say Game of Thrones wasn’t deserving. Our own Josh Kurp made a strong case for it in his Emmys recap. It’s an ambitious, sweeping, cinematic epic unlike anything else on television today, or ever, really. It’s easy to defend its selection for Outstanding Drama. Maybe the award for writing was a teensy bit much, but this new system also saw Veep take down Modern Family to win best comedy. Gotta crack a few eggs to make that delicious, delicious omelette.
