And the Emmy (Doesn't) Go to...

With the announcement of the 65th Primetime Emmy Award nominations this morning, the salivating crew on ABC's Good Morning America were more amped about who was NOT nominated (e.g. Steve Buscemi as actor and Boardwalk Empire as drama series) than even the impressive list of nominees themselves. Clearly the field of talent is stacked this year with shows like Breaking Bad (a fave for my wife and me, that we watched on Netflix) and the end of 30 Rock (all episodes on Netflix), yet no nod for the farewell of The Office (also on Netflix).

What I found remarkable (and the TV hosts noted as well) was the impact of Netflix on the Emmy selection process.  Some major points were racked up by:

• Kevin Spacey as Francis Underwood in House of Cards (a Netflix original)
• Elizabeth Ross as Robin in Top of the Lake, her second nomination of the year after being lauded as Peggy Olson in Mad Men. (And to think we knew her first as Zoey Bartlet on The West Wing, which I am currently watching on Netflix.)
• Jason Bateman in the fourth season of Arrested Development, a coup d'etat for Netflix, if you ask me. I have been DELIGHTED with this reboot.

I was (barely) running on the treadmill at the clubhouse at our apartment complex, which was loud and may, I admit, have affected my hearing. But I swear that the gushing host declared that this is a "magic time for television." I would agree, especially if Netflix is called TV simply because we watch it on our TV sets.

If the powers that be at broadcast networks do not recognize the influence of new streaming media (like Netflix and Hulu) that respond to the wishes of viewers more readily with original programming, the magic may be revealed as just their trying to pull a rabbit out of the same old top hat in a few short years.

Now, I am the first to admit that I cannot believe I am praising Netflix, since I had decried the appearance of "classic" (translated: lame) movies after some unwelcome changes came to the Netflix experience in the last couple of years. John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars and Internet Vlogbrothers entrepreneur, famously dogged the changes to Netflix on his web series "Crash Course World History." I laughed aloud and underscored this derision to the class for whom I was replaying the video. Now I have to admit I was wrong. Apparently the new David Copperfield at Netflix (i.e. Cindy Holland, VP of original content, named in March 2012 ) had a few tricks up her sleeve I didn't know about....

Bravo, Ted Sarandos, Netflix Chief Content Officer! Encore!

(Source: www.pmnewswire.com report from May 22, 2012)