When television professionals learn today who among them has been nominated for TV's highest honor, they'll also come to know a thing or two about the marketing effectiveness of specially packaged doorbells and rubber snakes jumping out of cans.
Taking a cue from their flashier brethren in the movie industry who each year wage multimillion-dollar Oscar quests, cable networks and production companies are campaigning more aggressively and creatively for this town's second most prestigious statuette: the Emmy.
Blame it on shaven-headed, raspy-voiced Michael Chiklis.
Just as upstart Miramax's savvy campaign earned "Shakespeare in Love" a surprise win over the favored "Saving Private Ryan" for best picture of 1998, the Emmy race was upended last year when Chiklis, star of FX's "The Shield," came out of nowhere to take the award for lead actor in a drama.
For the first time, an actor from a basic cable network took the top dramatic acting prize, and suddenly people realized everyone had a shot at one of the major awards.
That feeling was reinforced when "The Shield," Chiklis and Tony Shalhoub of USA Network's "Monk" all hauled in major prizes at the Golden Globe awards a few months later. Cable executives concluded: Goodbye to watching from the sidelines; hello to Emmy marketing campaigns.
Of course, nothing in the TV awards quest approaches the magnitude of the Oscar spend-a-thon, which has gotten so over the top that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has imposed new, harsher penalties for those who violate its rules. But then while a best picture Academy Award can substantially boost a film's bottom line -- much of "Chicago's" nearly $170-million domestic gross can be attributed to its best picture Oscar in March -- the reward from an Emmy is less tangible. It's more a matter of prestige and ego when it comes to the TV awards.
Still, ego counts for plenty in Hollywood. And so, the aggressive campaign waged on Chiklis' behalf, complete with a DVD packed in a box that lighted up when it opened, was widely emulated during the Emmy nominations season that led to today's 5:40 a.m. announcement of the nominees. As Peter Ligouri, president of FX Networks, put it: "Michael's win gave hope."
