Emmys became a bloated SNL episode

The Hollywood Reporter

Lorne Michaels decided to turn the entire Emmys telecast "over to Saturday Night Live and Saturday Night Live-adjacent personalities in a way that no single show has ever dominated the Emmy proceedings in my lifetime," says Daniel Fienberg. The SNL bloat could be seen with longtime cast member Kenan Thompson being part of the beginning and the ending of the show. "Heaven knows I'm an appreciator of Thompson and his marvelous SNL legacy and his impressive pre-SNL legacy, but there's a statement you're making when you have Kenan Thompson present for outstanding drama series and it's something along the lines of, 'The history of television is, for tonight, all about just one show," says Fienberg. He adds: "Imagine CBS using its platform a decade ago to only let various cast members from CSI and its respective spinoffs present. Or ABC doing an Emmys telecast in which each award is presented by somebody from the Bachelor franchise. This was a bad look for NBC and for Michaels, and it'd be hard to begrudge any future network in this Emmys rotation thinking that skipping NBC talent for presentations would be fair play."

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