Who was that Sean Spicer joke on again?
Near the beginning of the 69th annual Primetime Emmy Awards last night, host Stephen Colbert hauled former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer onstage to declare that the CBS-broadcast show would have “the largest audience to witness an Emmys, period — both in person and around the world.”
It's always great when a joke works on so many levels.
Sunday’s Emmys took repeated aim at Trump, the former Celebrity Apprentice host and past nominee, and combined with facing a Green Bay Packers game on NBC’s Sunday Night Football again, the POTUS-bashing Emmys were knocked down to a new low – at least in the early numbers. Snagging a 8.2 in metered market ratings, last night’s three-hour-plus show fronted by Colbert tripped 2% from the 2016 show.
That's bad.
But it's not just the Trump bashing. Though you can bet that having Colbert host led to plenty of Republicans deciding not to tune in. The Emmy Awards used to celebrate shows with national audiences even as the Oscars went down into a black hole of movies that hardly anyone outside New York or LA had ever heard of.
The Emmy Awards went down the same tunnel.
Hulu finally scored by pandering to leftist insanity with Handmaid's Tale, a TV series that imagines what it would be like if Christians were more like Muslims. (But of course you can't say that.) It's become the official anti-show of the Resistance. And leftist protesters will show up in its ridiculous outfits to make a point that no one except them gets.
Rewarding the Handmaid's Tale, a show that hardly anybody watches on a service that hardly anyone uses, because it sticks some sort of thumb in the eye of religious people is exactly the sort of bubble move you get from an incestuous industry. And it's certain to make people tune out.
The Emmy Awards went to lefty favorites that are little known outside their bubble. Cable and streaming services dominated. Network TV hardly placed.
Your political attitude was far more important than popularity or creativity. Muslims were lavished with awards. So was John Oliver and SNL. Giving Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon awards for their Hillary and Trump roles sent a message. As did giving almost everything else to Handmaid's Tale.
The only legitimate award for the night was to John Lithgow for The Crown. Everything else was pure politics and the inbred culture of the coastal left.
No wonders Americans gave it a pass.