Blown Coverage by CBS: The NFL & The Emmies

CBS was celebrating 50 years of NFL coverage. Meanwhile, they played down the fact that their shoddy camera work cost the NY Jets a critical call early in the game because they couldn’t supply the review officials with a shot of a called fumble. To obscure this fact, they refused to refer to the play as “questionable” or “controversial,” they just carried on as though there had actually been a fumble even though it appeared to everyone that the runner was down before the ball was yanked out. That’s pretty much the status quo anymore, on the field, in the workplace – there’s an unwritten law that you must never acknowledge a mistake.

Similarly, I wonder if CBS will own up to producing one of the worst Emmy Awards shows in recorded history. Right out of the gate, they announced we were in store for some changes. Of course, the presumption was that the changes would be somehow beneficial. They weren't. Let's see how they react, now that the broadcast fell flat. Let the tap dancing begin. Thank God, there was NFL Football and MLB Baseball airing at the same time, giving me something to move on to during the most painful moments.

As usual, the awards went to a bunch of shows that few people watch. It’s the TV world’s way of informing us that we don’t know what good television is. If we did, we’d be religious viewers of 30 Rock, Madmen, and the canceled Pushing Up Daisies.

Of the award winning shows, I believe the BBC production of Dickens’ “Little Dorrit” was the only one that I had been a real fan of. I do watch a rerun of “Two and a Half Men” on occasion, but I never catch the original episodes. Regarding “Madmen,” for me, once was enough. I tried to watch “30 Rock” a few times, but couldn’t stay with it for more than 5 minutes.

Neil Patrick Harris is a likeable guy under most circumstances, like when he’s a talk show guest. But, his performance hosting the Emmys can only have given David Letterman renewed hope of hosting the Oscars again. It was that bad.

Anyway, despite all of that, both the Jets and the Giants won on Sunday. So, it turned out to be a pretty good day.