Weaving the Web Into the Bigger Picture

“This is the first time in my life I have had someone to talk to while the awards are on--nice to see y’all.”

So gushed one East Coaster in an online chat room during Sunday night’s Emmy Awards. Minutes later, an Australian chat visitor responded, “Well, howdy from Sydney to Melbourne. We have another 10 hours to wait before we see what’s going on!”

While the Emmy telecast wasn’t broadcast over the Internet, fans were able to chat it up and access more awards-related programming on the Web than ever before. And, for the first time, Internet users were actually able to affect the outcome of one special category on the awards show.

In the two weeks leading up to the telecast, Web visitors could cast their votes on the Emmys/Excite Web site (https://emmys.excite.com) for the five most memorable moments from the 1998-1999 prime-time season. To make their decision, users could view 20 online clips, ranging from the time that Julia Roberts guest-starred on “Law & Order” to the time that Dylan and Kelly were reunited on “Beverly Hills, 90210.” Online voting continued until about the first half-hour of the show, when actress-singer Brandy announced the fifth-most memorable prime-time TV moment, according to the Internet votes. The countdown to No. 1 was sprinkled throughout the telecast.

And the winners were:

1. “Friends”: Ross and Rachel marry in Las Vegas.

2. “NYPD Blue”: Bobby Simone dies.

3. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”: Buffy won’t let Angel die.

4. “Frasier”: Niles wrecks Frasier’s apartment.

5. “71st Annual Academy Awards”: Roberto Benigni celebrates winning an Oscar.

In the Emmys/Excite Web site chat room, a visitor named Gowarus exclaimed, “YEEES--Ross and Rachel was my vote.”

That kind of reaction is exactly what Emmy producer Don Mischer hoped for when he came up with the concept for the interactive poll.

“The Emmys is very much an industry show, but this was one way to let viewers and Web users have their say,” Mischer said.

In addition, on the Emmys/Excite site, viewers could watch a live cybercast of red-carpet interviews conducted by Daily Variety columnist Army Archerd, and backstage interviews with winners by Scott Herriott from cable ZDTV’s “Internet Tonight” show. The quality of the audio and video was choppy even at a 56K connection, but it was nearly flawless at higher connection speeds. This was an improvement over the live streaming available online earlier this year for the Oscars, which was comparatively murkier and choppier.

Back in the chat rooms, the barbs and accolades were flying, as usual:

“The time delay sucks,” said echo in E!Online’s chat room, referring to the fact that the awards were being shown live on the East Coast but were tape-delayed for other areas. “I mean, it’s Sunday. It’s not like anyone’s at work. They just want to get the good ratings at night.”

From jscully23: “oh! . . . wish i was watching it now . . . i’m just looking at the blow by blow thing now.”

From sergiosan, a visitor from Brazil: “is calista as thin this year as she was last year????” Belbee commented: “I thought Calista looked good on the red carpet.”

And from rugsie: “somone told a huge lie to jenna [Elfman] when she asked, ‘how does this look’. . . . LOL.”

While the majority of the online chats were about fun and games, the interactive components of Emmy night were perhaps early indicators of what awards-viewing may be like as access to high-speed delivery expands.

As Jim Chabin, president of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, noted: “This is all a sneak preview of what’s to come in the future.”