New TV Awards May Challenge Emmys

On Monday night, you’ll be able to see awards for television’s best drama series, best comedy series, best male and female actors--and so on.

No, it’s not the Emmy Awards. But with just four months to go before the industry’s biggest and most beleaguered annual event, the new American Television Awards will debut on ABC. And the question is whether it will diminish the Emmys, already reeling in recent years from lower ratings, critical reviews--and, in 1992, its withering and often tasteless attack on then-Vice President Dan Quayle.

The chances are that the Emmys won’t feel much heat from the Monday night newcomer. But there has been sensitivity in Hollywood over the future of the Emmy Awards ever since ABC grabbed the telecast in an exclusive four-year deal in February, thereby angering NBC, CBS and Fox, who thought that they would be part of an annual rotation of the industry show.

Thus, any perceived competition to the Emmys--real or imagined--now becomes more of a critical matter for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which puts on the show. Are the Emmys vulnerable to a challenge? Can a show like the American Television Awards provide a clue?

Reports have persisted of a possible opposition awards show by the three networks that lost out on the Emmy deal--a move to signify that TV’s top awards belong to the entire industry. The academy previously aroused network ire for selling the Emmys to high-bidder Fox for the last six years, allowing audiences to dwindle because of the limited reach of the smaller company.

John Agoglia, president of NBC Enterprises and one of the losing network bidders for the Emmy Awards in the latest negotiation, is still upset and says, “I think the three of us (networks) feel very strongly that there should be a show that celebrates TV and is not just commerce. This deal is a ratings grab and a very shortsighted mercenary grab on the part of the academy.”

Monday’s show, produced by George Schlatter, focuses entirely on the high-profile awards of programs and performers, as voted by about 400 members of the media who cover television. It does not get into such awards categories as writing, directing and the technical crafts.

“I think it’s had a positive effect (on the Emmys),” says Schlatter, “because they’ve cut down on their categories. And we’re doing two hours while they’ve been doing three.”

The Emmys have taken steps to correct some outrageous misjudgments of the past. When the Sept. 19 awards telecast airs on ABC from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, “The Simpsons,” previously relegated to the animation category, now will be able to compete for best comedy series--if, of course, it is nominated.

In addition, guest performers no longer will be lumped with weekly series stars in acting categories--an absurd practice. Last year, it led to a best-actor victory by Christopher Lloyd for a one-shot appearance in the Disney Channel’s “Avonlea” series, while weekly performers were left out in the cold.

By opting for the four-year ABC deal, which will bring the academy at least $2 million more overall than if it had gone for a network rotation cycle, the Emmys now will be on the network that has also tied up the Oscar show for a long run.

Academy representatives say they were swayed not only by ABC’s money--reportedly $2.5 million a year going up to $2.7 million--but also by being with an event-oriented network that will have a vested interest in the show because of the four-year commitment.

Rich Frank, president of Walt Disney Studios and chief negotiator of the ABC deal for the academy, says that if the three losing networks “got together to do an awards show” to oppose the Emmys, “it would be vindictive.” The three networks, he says, have canceled their ads in the academy’s magazine and have “threatened not to buy seats” for the Emmy show.

Agoglia acknowledges that at the moment, “NBC is not going to buy any tickets--I don’t think so,” but he adds that the network’s talent “will do whatever they wish to do.”

Schlatter says his American Television Awards never intended “to attack the Emmys. They thought it would be competitive, but it’s not.” Television Academy President Leo Chaloukian says, “The Emmy has all the prestige. I would rather be honored by my peers.”

In any case, industry figures will be studying Monday’s new awards show for clues to the Emmys’ comparative status and whether they might be ripe for competition or just overhaul.

While viewers may be more interested in “The Simpsons,” ABC’s top priority in September will be to start putting the Emmy Awards back on the map in a major way.