2017 Emmy Award Odds Limited Series/TV Movie
–The 2017 Emmy Awards will be held on September 17, 2017
–Stephen Colbert will host the Emmy Awards broadcast.
–Nominations were announced on July 13, 2017.
Like the ‘Variety Show’ category the award for ‘Limited Series/TV Movie’ is somewhat dated. At one point, the TV movie was a staple of network programming with two hours including commercials the perfect amount of time for a lightweight story starring Karen Valentine or a similar type ingenue. In fact, this clip of the aforementioned Ms. Valentine should give you a good idea of the type of fare you’d expect in a made-for-TV movie.
KAREN VALENTINE IN ‘COFFEE, TEA OR ME’
You just don’t see ‘made for TV movie’s’ anymore for several reasons. The heyday of the ‘made for TV movie’ was at the height of the domination of the ‘Big 3’ television networks. With 3 networks airtime was valuable and the powers that be doled it out almost grudgingly. Lightweight comedies and banal dramas were perfect for the format since anything more ambitious wouldn’t fit in the programming ‘window’. That’s no longer the case with a myriad of cable and pay TV networks–along with the relatively recent addition of streaming outlets like Netflix–and that has given the network honchos the ability to emphasize ‘quality’ over ‘quantity’.
That’s part of the reason for the demise of TV movies as such but there’s also a cynical side. Even the networks figured out that you could make more money by stretching a production over two or more nights allowing them to add even more commercials in the process. In the paleolithic era of television (the 1970’s) the ‘mini series’ became the vehicle of choice for high quality ‘event’ type productions like Alex Haley’s ‘Roots’. Today, they’re the medium of choice for both network and cable. In the process, they’ve both moved away from fluffy Karen Valentine type movies into higher quality productions.
A BUMPER CROP OF QUALITY TELEVISION
This category is another place where we run into definitional questions of what belongs in which category. A definition of miniseries, limited series and several related terms that doesn’t do much to clarify what belongs in this category. The one proviso that does help make some sense of this category–a movie or a miniseries must be ‘closed ended’.
There’s a bumper crop of great television today but little of it is coming from the legacy networks (ABC, NBC, CBS). The definitional guidelines of this category means that the networks at least don’t have to compete against iconic shows like ‘The Sopranos’ or ‘Game of Thrones’. The competition in the ‘TV Movie’ category is especially weak–I think the world of Dolly Parton but you wouldn’t have seen “Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love” nominated for best TV movie 20 years ago:
69TH PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS 2017 BETTING ODDS
TO WIN THE EMMY FOR OUTSTANDING LIMITED SERIES
Big Little Lies: +450
Feud: Bette and Joan: +250
The Night Of: +175
Fargo: +250
Genius: +750
TO WIN THE EMMY FOR OUTSTANDING TV MOVIE
Black Mirror: San Junipero: -125
Sherlock: The Lying Detective: +100
The Wizard of Lies: +1200
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: +1500
Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love: +3000
TO WIN THE EMMY FOR OUTSTANDING MOVIE/MINI ACTRESS
Nicole Kidman: -250
Jessica Lange: +200
Carrie Coon: +900
Susan Sarandon: +2500
Reese Witherspoon: +2500
Felicity Huffman: +2500
TO WIN THE EMMY FOR OUTSTANDING MOVIE/MINI ACTOR
Robert De Niro: +150
Riz Ahmed: +150
John Turturro: +750
Ewan McGregor: +750
Geoffrey Rush: +750
Benedict Cumberbatch: +2500
TO WIN THE EMMY FOR OUTSTANDING MOVIE/MINI SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Laura Dern: -185
Judy Davis: +300
Regina King: +500
Jackie Hoffman: +1500
Shailene Woodley: +1500
Michelle Pfeiffer: +1500
TO WIN THE EMMY FOR OUTSTANDING MOVIE/MINI SUPPORTING ACTOR
David Thewlis: +150
Stanley Tucci: +150
Alfred Molina: +450
Alexander Skarsgard: +500
Michael Kenneth Williams: +1750
Bill Camp: +1750
TO WIN THE EMMY FOR OUTSTANDING MOVIE/MINI DIRECTOR
Big Little Lies: -130
And the Winner Is/Bette and Joan: +350
The Beach/The Night Of: +500
The Art of War/The Night Of: +900
Einstein: Chapter One/Genius: +900
The Law of Vacant Places/Fargo: +900
TO WIN THE EMMY FOR OUTSTANDING MOVIE/MINI WRITING
Big Little Lies: -130
Call of the Wild/The Night Of: +350
San Junipero/Black Mirror: +500
The Law of Vacant Places/Fargo: +900
And the Winner Is/Bette and Joan: +900
Pilot/Bette and Joan: +900