Why should we care about the ...

Question: Why should we care about the Emmys? Every year people in the entertainment news media complain of the innumerable shows that were unjustly snubbed, and grumble that the Academy is too conservative, oblivious and ill-advised. I don't disagree with them. To wit: The mom from Malcolm in the Middle was nominated this year. That show is still on? I mean, do actual TV critics vote on the Emmys? It seems the entire body of voters is made up of my grandma. And every year the same news outlets hype up the Emmys like crazy, as if they actually meant something. It's tragic that the Emmys don't take advantage of what they could do — promote and save underwatched shows, expose viewers to innovative programs they wouldn't otherwise watch. I, for one, refuse to watch an awards program that honors the familiar and mediocre (ahem, Two and a Half Men) and consistently ignores truly great TV, like this year's snubs Battlestar Galactica and Veronica Mars.
Answer: I wondered how long it would take before this contrary point of view would be expressed. (Happens every year around this time. And by the way, forgive the Emmy obsession in this week's columns. It did tend to dominate the traffic this week. I promise to move on to fresher topics soon.) We care for the same reason we care about the Oscars, the Grammys or the Tonys. It's the primary award ceremony in which the industry rewards its own, however imperfect the process is. I don't know how many times I've advised readers not to take the Emmys too seriously or to rely on the nominations to validate their sense of a show's worth. Cult shows like Battlestar and Veronica are never going to get their due, any more than Buffy ever did — even the unforgettable musical episode, which was ignored in music categories! The real crime of the Emmy-nomination process this year is that in some key categories, it all seems to have boiled down to who watched a single episode, as if that's the way TV series ought to be judged. If judges went into a room so oblivious to Lost that they couldn't make sense of the episode they screened, they had no business signing up to judge that category in the first place. It's a debacle this year, even more than usual.