A History of the Oscars at the Emmys (Can They Win Variety Special, Live, for the First Time?)

by Christopher James

Could continued fervor for the Oscars that awarded Everything Everywhere All At Once lead to an Emmy win for the Oscars ceremony?

The Academy may hand out awards, but they also compete for them! The Oscars regularly compete at the Emmys in the Variety Special categories, having won 7 Emmys from 68 nominations over the past 10 years. This flies in the face of the common joke that the Oscars are regularly the most maligned awards show on the block. Still, Hollywood's big show has never won the Variety Special (Live) prize, nor the Special Class Program award before it. This year’s Oscars got above average reviews, including from The Film Experience. It contends in four categories, including Directing (which it has won twice previously). 

Could a strong show and a great winner with Everything Everywhere All At Once propel the Oscars to a big Emmys win?

Could Elton John EGOT this year with his Farewell from Dodger Stadium special?What Are Its Chances in Variety Special (Live)?

The nominees for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) are:

• 75th Annual Tony Awards

• Chris Rock: Selective Outrage

• Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium

• The Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show Starring Rihanna

• The Oscars

Live musicals tend to dominate this category, with recent winners including Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, Grease Live, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Live from Lincoln Center). This year doesn’t have any live musical nominees, so a win is up for grabs.

In terms of nominations, The Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show Starring Rihanna leads with five nominations. The halftime shows have been earning nominations in this category for decades, but it won for the first time last year for The Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show Starring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent. It could very well repeat here, the way The Tonys and Live in Front of a Studio Audience both did recently. It’s funny that both the Oscars and the Super Bowl are going toe to toe with Rihanna performances this year.

Since the transition from Special Class programs, which differentiated categories of events, no concert has won the big prize. This does not bode well for Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium. However, Elton John is a huge name that most voting bodies love to award… except the Emmys. This could be used to his advantage. He currently has an Oscar, Grammy and Tony, so he’s just one Emmy away from an EGOT. How fitting would it be to send him off with an Emmy for the filmed performance of his farewell tour?

The same stat applies to comedy events, though technically the category’s 2021 winner could qualify (Stephen Colbert's Election Night 2020: Democracy's Last Stand Building Back America Great Again Better 2020). However, that year had extenuating circumstances, as the election gave it an air of importance and Stephen Colbert is an Emmy mainstay. This could make it hard for Chris Rock to win a fifth Emmy for his new live special, Selective Outrage. However, he has won Variety Special once before (in 1997 for Chris Rock: Bring the Pain) and won four times prior for writing stand-up specials. Additionally, his new special has both writing and directing nominations, which shows strong support.

Finally, we have the Oscars’ eternal challenger… the Tonys. We’ll get into that a little later. However, what helps the Oscars out this year is its nomination tally. It has four nominations, including Directing, while Chris Rock and Elton John all only have three nominations apiece. The Tonys only have one additional nomination - Lighting Design. It’s safe to say it is out of the running this year.

Prediction:

1. Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium

2. The Oscars

3. The Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show Starring Rihanna

4. Chris Rock: Selective Outrage

5. 75th Annual Tony Awards

The Tony Awards have won seven Emmys for Variety Special (Live).How Do The Oscars Compare to Other Awards Shows in Emmy Races?

While the Oscars may have more nominations than the Tonys this year, the Tonys historically have a much better track record at the Emmys. The Tony Awards have won the top prize for live specials seven times out of fifteen nominations. This includes a five year streak between 2010 and 2014. Its most recent win came in 2017, the last year before the category was officially deemed Outstanding Variety Special (Live). Since then, it has not won a single competitive Emmy award, while the Oscars has won three (two for Production Design, one for Sound Mixing). Still, the Tony Awards have a pretty staggering tally of 100 nominations prior to this year, quite a bit ahead of the Oscars haul of 68 nominations.

In terms of nominations and wins, the Oscars also trail the Grammys as well. Music’s biggest night has amassed 93 total nominations. Like the Oscars, it has never won the main prize for either Variety Special or Special Class Program. It does have a more robust list of wins though - 23 to be exact. They’re entirely on the creative arts side, with a majority of its wins coming from Sound Mixing (9 wins) and Lighting Design (6 wins).

While the Oscars do not have a leg up on the Grammys and Tonys in terms of history, they do have more nominations than both of those awards this year. There’s one other major award show the Oscars tower over in terms of wins and nominations - The Golden Globe Awards. The Hollywood Foreign Press’ glitzy award show has a total of sixteen nominations, none of which have resulted in a win. However, ten of the sixteen nominations were in the top prize - Variety Special (Live) or Special Class Program. That’s just one nomination behind the Oscars in this category.

List of Emmy Nominations for The Oscars (by Year)

• 95th Academy Awards - Winner: Everything Everywhere All At Once

  • 4 Nominations - Variety Special (Live), Directing, Production Design, Music Direction

• 94th Academy Awards - Winner: Coda

  • 3 Nominations - Variety Special (Live), Production Design, Choreography

• 93rd Academy Awards - Winner: Nomadland

  • 4 Nominations and 1 Win - Variety Special (Live), Lighting Design, Production Design (WIN), Technical Direction

• 92nd Academy Awards - Winner: Parasite

  • 9 Nominations and 2 Win - Variety Special (Live), Choreography, Contemporary Hairstyling, Lighting Design, Contemporary Makeup, Music Direction, Production Design (WIN), Sound Mixing (WIN), Technical Direction

• 91st Academy Awards - Winner: Green Book

  • 8 Nominations - Variety Special (Live), Directing, Lighting Design, Music Direction, Production Design, Sound Mixing, Technical Direction, Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media with an Unscripted Program

• 90th Academy Awards - Winner: The Shape of Water

  • 8 Nominations and 1 Win - Variety Special (Live), Directing (WIN), Lighting Design, Music Direction, Production Design, Sound Mixing, Technical Direction, Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media with an Unscripted Program

• 89th Academy Awards - Winner: Moonlight

  • 6 Nominations and 1 Win - Special Class Program, Directing (WIN), Lighting Design, Production Design, Sound Mixing, Technical Direction

• 88th Academy Awards - Winner: Spotlight

  • 5 Nominations - Special Class Program, Lighting Design, Production Design, Sound Mixing, Technical Direction

• 87th Academy Awards - Winner: Birdman: or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

  • 8 Nominations and 1 Win - Special Class Program, Directing, Lighting Design, Music Direction, Music & Lyrics “Moving Pictures,” Production Design, Sound Mixing, Technical Direction (WIN)

• 86th Academy Awards - Winner: 12 Years a Slave

  • 8 Nominations and 1 Win - Special Class Program, Directing, Art Direction (WIN), Hairstyling, Lighting Design, Music Direction, Sound Mixing, Technical Direction

• 85th Academy Awards - Winner: Argo

  • 9 Nominations - Special Class Program, Directing, Art Direction (WIN), Hairstyling, Lighting Design, Makeup, Music Direction, Sound Mixing, Technical Direction

Do you think this year’s Oscar Ceremony deserves an Emmy? Let us know in the comments below.

Comments

[Finbar McBride]

The 75th Tony Awards aired June 12, 2022. The 76th Tony Awards aired June 11, 2023.

If Emmy voters are lazy, they may not realize that the nominee was a routine program, not the richly creative and entertaining show they watched weeks ago. Since Ariana DeBose hosted both programs, it becomes easier to muddle the waters.

If the Tonys win, it will be because too many voters mistook the nomination for the more recent broadcast.

[NathanielB]

DeBose deserves an Emmy, both for last year's Tonys and this year's, and, if there was still an Emmy for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, she'd likely win that outright. For entertainment value of the program overall, Elton John should win. The Chris Rock special may win because Netflix finally figured out how to stream a live program and it was actually the most anticipated of these 5 programs, but the gimmick of a live stand up special wore off as soon as it started. And the Super Bowl halftime show was received much worse than last year's, so I don't see it winning unless it is based on sheer momentum of "well, we're giving wins to Super Bowl halftime shows now." The problem is really that there are so few live programs, so the Oscars has become a filler nominee. The awards haven't actually won the program prize since Billy Crystal hosted and, while this year's show was better than the last 2, I just don't think it's strong enough overall to take this year's prize.