How is it possible in 2009 that a big, prime time extravaganza can leave it soley to the audience to take all its clips? The Emmys put on a solid show this year, but try to find any of the great moments on the Emmy site and you will be disappointed. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) has lost its chance to benefit from what will surely be many viral videos to come out of the 2009 Emmy show.

Thank God for the viewers. They’re the ones who posted the good stuff on YouTube.

There are some strange ironies here. Prior to the show, it seemed it would be the “webbiest” ever. The E! preshow had celebrity Tweets. The people behind the Emmy site used a Flip camera for some Red Carpet interviews. The promos for the Emmys featured host Neil Patrick Harris (who did an excellent job) with a kid who livetweeted everything he said. Indeed, the Academy did a good job livetweeting attwitter.com/primetimeemmys.

So where is the actual show video? And how is an online user supposed to navigate this?

For starters, there is confusion between the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) and the plain ol’ ATAS. ATAS was the original, but the two split in 1977. The National Academy is responsible for the Daytime, Sports, News, Public Service and Technology Emmys. Its site is at emmyonline.org. ATAS does the awards most people think of as “The Emmys,” the big TV awards show.

There is also an International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Best to leave that one alone.

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (no National) runs the big show, and its site is at emmys.com.

It turns out Emmy.com is a two-page family site with a picture of a girl and her dog, from Emmerdale Farms. Surely ATAS could offer a little money to pick up the URL and make things a little more convenient for us (and help the farm while they’re at it)? Even sillier - Emmy.tv is a placeholder page for a John Murray, whom I contacted via email. He tells me he has been a NATAS member for 10 years and intends to use the site to showcase his work.

So, once you’ve navigated your way through the Emmy sites and found the one for TV, you’d think you’d get a pretty goodwrapup. Sadly, you get squat. There is one video from the show - Neil Patrick Harris’sexcellent song-and-dance opening number. Want anything more? Go rogue.

One of the great successes of internet content has been Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. The inexplicably funny short film (originally released in three parts) won an Emmy this year. It so happens Neil Patrick Harris (our host, remember) starred as Dr. Horrible. People have been begging for a sequel. Who shows up in the middle of the Emmys? Harris, in a Dr. Horrible short along with his co-stars. The original Dr. Horrible, when it was released online crashed servers. Demand for this clip should be through the roof. CBS, however, won’t profit a bit.

We need to learn from this. It’s a simple lesson: give the audience what it wants, or it will go elsewhere. All the use of the cool tools in the world won’t mean anything if we don’t deliver on the big goods.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 10:16 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.