Why is Ryan Seacrest Hosting the Emmys?
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Seriously, and I'm not knocking on the guy personally, but I'm really kind of upset about this. Yeah, it's a silly thing to get mad about, but so what? Seacrest is the host of the planets most popular reality show, so he has brand name power behind him, and he's a pretty decent host. No arguing against that.
But he also, every bit as much as Simon Cowel, represents the transcendence of crap on television. There are a few good reality programs out there, though most of them live on the Discovery Channel, but the majority are exploitative junk that should shock and embarrass any Emmy nominee with an ounce of self respect and pride for their industry. Even if they guy is an exceedingly popular host, having him host the awards show for creative programming on television is inappropriate at best. I'm certain that Fox is just thrilled as could be with this, and they should be, but the irony is amusing. Their guy is hosting an awards show that up until recently, and maybe not even still as far as I know, doesn't even recognize reality programming. And rightly so, it's not creative content. Why should anyone get an award for putting a bunch of regular people in embarrassing situations and then filming it for our amusement?
Reality programming of the kind you see on the big four is destroying traditional entertainment on television, and I'm not appealing to tradition simply for the sake of it, traditional entertainment is simply superior. Idol may get the big ratings, but does it sell on DVD? Can it lead to a movie or a spin-off series? How does it help the television industry at all since it's a contest for the music industry?
I liken this to putting an anti-union bigtime CEO in charge of a union. The two just don't mix.
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