Award shows are classical staples of American television and it’s once again almost time for the popular Prime Time Emmy Awards which is in it’s 64th year. The 2012 Prime Time Emmy Awards are set for September 23rd, 2012. Nominations have been released on Thursday July 19th, 2012 with a tremendous list of actors, actress, and programs sure to make for a great show.
Before I talk about the show, lets take a look back at how it got started, and how the famous golden statute became the coveted prize. What started back in 1949 with just a small gathering event proclaiming the best in entertainment television, has since grown into the popular annual showcase we see today. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences are the ones to give credit to, as they host the star-studded event each year. Los Angles is the site for the Prime Time Emmy Awards but it did not come without a bitter dispute decades ago with a New York based company.
The New York based television academy founded by Ed Sullivan, competed with the current California based company for the academy award show. They competed for just a few years until they joined together in 1957, and have been together ever since then. They came to a mutual agreement that Los Angles would have the Primetime Emmy’s, while New York would get the Day time Emmy Awards.
As far as the Golden statue award goes, it was a tough choice to have this as the award as 47 other models were looked at, before this particular award was chosen. The award is a depiction of a woman holding a stylized atom above her head in her hands. Something interesting was that the current name for the award “Emmy” was actually first named “Immy” but committee board members decided to change it to Emmy because it sounded more feminine-sounding. 200 “celebrities” will have the honor of claim one of these remarkable awards, which are actually made by hand at takes up to 5 hours to make.
Two programs in particular this year AMC’s “Mad Men” and FX’s “American Horror Story” have each received 17 nominations leading all other shows in the process.
There are 27 different categories in which actors, and T.V. shows earn nominations in, here is a sample of just a few nominees.
Outstanding Comedy Series:
- CBS ”The Big Bang Theory”
- HBO “Curb Your Enthusiasm” , “Girls”, and “Veep”
- ABC “Modern Family”
- NBC “30 Rock”
Outstanding Host For A Reality Or Reality-Competition Program:
- Tom Bergeron- ”Dancing With The Stars”
- Cat Deeley- ”So You Think You Can Dance”
- Phil Keoghan- “The Amazing Race”
- Ryan Seacrest- “American Idol”
- and Betty White- “Betty White’s Off Their Rockers”
Supporting Actor in a Drama Series:
- Jim Carter, and Brendan Coyle- ”Downton Abbey”
- Giancarlo Esposito, and Aaron Paul- ”Breaking Bad”
- Jared Harris- ”Mad Men”
- Peter Dinklage- ”Game of Thrones”
Outstanding Animated Program:
- “The Simpsons”
- “American Dad”
- “Icarly”
- “Victorious”
- and ”Wizards Of Waverly Place”
For a full list of nominees make sure to check out the official PDF.
