These Emmy voters.  Who are they?  Considering the process they must go through to watch the nominated episodes for Best Comedy and Best Drama, you'd think they were locked in a closet for eleven and a half months out of the year.  The system seems overly complicated: to get your show up for initial consideration, you send the Emmy voters one episode of your series.  When the field is then pared down to the final nominees (as they are now), each series provides six episodes (or, six hours for dramas, six half-hours for comedies) to the voters.  First, however, the academy places those six episodes on three separate tapes.  The tapes are then randomly distributed to the Emmy voters, all of whom receive two of the three tapes.  This means, of course, that not every Emmy voter is seeing the same episodes.  Perhaps this makes sense to some people (probably the same people who were responsible for nominating Two and a Half Men for Best Comedy).  Anyways, the fine folks at Gold Derby recently got a hold of the specific episode lists that each Best Comedy series sent out to voters.  You will find those lists below, along with some commentary. 


Curb Your Enthusiasm

"The Anonymous Donor"
"The Ida Funkhauser Roadside Memorial"
"The Rat Dog"
"The TiVo Guy"
"The Therapists"
"The Bat Mitzvah"


Entourage

"Adios Amigos"
"Welcome to the Jungle"
"The First Cut Is the Deepest"
"The Day F**kers"
"No Cannes Do"
"The Cannes Kids"


The Office

"Local Ad"
"Dinner Party"
"Chair Model"
"Did I Stutter?"
"Goodbye, Toby (Parts 1 & 2)"


30 Rock

"Rosemary's Baby"
"Greenzo"
"Secrets and  Lies"
"Episode 210"
"Succession"
"Cooter"


Two and a Half Men

"Meander to Your Dander"
"Winky-Dink Time"
"Dum Ditty Dum Ditty Doo"
"City of Great Racks"
"Kinda Like Necrophilia"
"Rough Night in Hump Junction"



Unlike the Best Drama category, comedies have a fairly easy time choosing the episodes they submit.  They can just pick the six best episodes of the season, and go from there.  Even though it's fairly straightforward, the system benefits some series more than others.  The Office, for instance, has over-arching story lines that are integral in understanding the subtleties of each episode's plot.  The characters are dense, and the writers make a fair number of call-backs to previous episodes.  If you don't watch The Office and are forced to take a gander at four somewhat random episodes, lots of stuff would simply fly over your head. 

Then, you have a show like Entourage, which is helped a great deal by the Emmy submission system.  Entourage is a notoriously hit and miss show.  The best episodes are recklessly hilarious, but too often episodes fall flat.  The ability to cherry-pick only the best episodes has likely helped Entourage's somewhat puzzling high-standing among voters.  Also, Entourage might be the least plot-driven show on television. Thus, a newcomer can easily watch a random episode and feel right at home.

However, if I had to pick a winner based on the episode submissions, I'd go with 30 Rock.  It's already a critical darling, every episode on the list is a winner, and each works as a stand-alone episode.  But, really, it could go to 30 Rock, The Office or perennial Emmy favorite Curb Your Enthusiasm.  It's impossible to predict.  I do know one thing: if Two and a Half Men wins, I'm going to throw myself off a balcony. 


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
Source: LA Times
(Image Courtesy of NBC)