Enter Doogie: Can He Save the Emmys?

Slipping awards show hopes Neil Patrick Harris can fend off football
By Wesley Oliver,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 19, 2009 4:42 PM CDT
Enter Doogie: Can He Save the Emmys?
Worker Kristen Merlino places a picture of actress Holly Hunter into assigned seating inside the Nokia Theatre prior to the 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.   (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Last year's Emmys rated the worst in the show's 60-year history—so executive producer Don Mischer is working under a little, ah, pressure to turn things around. "All awards shows have been sliding in the ratings," he tells the Christian Science Monitor, and adds that on-set control room, live band, choreography, and host Neil Patrick Harris will spark enough pizzazz to compete with Sunday Night Football.

One earlier solution—to skip the awards many viewers consider boring—was nixed by the creative unions. Enter Harris, who jazzed up the Tony Awards and hopes to do the same here. One key challenge: Doling out the show’s 28 awards while keeping the ceremony festive. “That's a lot," Mischer laughs, "but we will do our best to let everyone have their moment in the spotlight."
(More Emmy Awards stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X