CMA Awards Outclass Emmys and Most Others in Authenticity

While Chad Benefield and I were doing our show, The Screening Room, on our sister station WOMI for 10 years, we gave movie reviews, covered entertainment news, and previewed and commented on all the awards shows. We no longer do The Screening Room, but if we did, I think I'd just have to say what I've been feeling about these self-congratulatory back-patting festivals for quite some time: Get over yourselves!

ACTORS!--GIVE ME A BREAK

Now, I'm talking specifically about the acting awards--the Emmys and the Oscars. While I don't have much interest in who wins a Grammy, the winners ARE musicians and generally are either genuinely thankful and humbled or are much more cynical about the whole process and don't feel musicians need to compete with one another in the first place. (I feel differently about the CMA Awards and will get to them later.) But ACTORS are a separate breed of human. These are people--in my humble opinion--who are in need of affirmation from complete strangers. They need to feel the love from an audience. I only come to this conclusion based on the very nature of their careers. If we don't like a movie or TV show in which they star, we don't watch it. The movie loses money; the TV show is low-rated. The studio has to think twice about the cast it put in that movie, or the network just might pull the plug on the program. Same thing with a play. The actors are on stage with an audience right there to give them instant approval or instant disdain. They need the former to be more confident in their futures. So when I see these actors winning these awards--and, granted, there are shows I watch which were nominated AND won last night--I grow less and less interested in them as people.

I guess I'm getting older, but as I was watching the Emmys last night, I didn't much care--when all was said and done--if the people in the shows I liked, or the people that I liked, won or not. I'm already satisfied with their work. Whether or not a small group of people I don't know thinks they deserve an award for something I already enjoy is completely irrelevant. I feel the same way about the Oscars. Oh, and I get really tired of actors and actresses feeling the need to perform little "routines" when they get up there to accept their trophies. Invariably, you will hear at least two actors mention that the clock is ticking and they only have so long to give their speech. You will always hear at least of them give out all of his or her thank-you's and then look into the camera and tell their kids it's time to go to bed. It's all a comedy routine. And it's never funny. I don't care if the clock is ticking. Most times, I wish they'd say thank you and walk off. And, as far as getting the kids to bed from an award stage, that's bogus. Last night, the Emmy's started at 7PM local time. That's 5PM California time. I heard the go-to-bed line about two hours into the show. Really? There are 8 and 9 year olds who have 7PM bedtimes? Well, anyway, I say all that to say all this...

GOD BLESS THE CMA AWARDS!

For the most part, country singers' lives began very simply. That's why country music is about real people doin' their thing. That's why I like it. When country artists win awards, they thank the fans, radio stations, God. They feel very honored to have the careers that they have. And they always owe it all to all of us. I've never heard an actor or actress thank the fans who attend the movies or purchase the DVDs. Give me the authentic CMA Awards any day over the rest of them. Because these folks mean it when they win. They don't do little skits that aren't funny, they don't complain about the clock...and they don't have to remind their kids to go to bed!