Emmys Hogs: The Most Over-Rewarded Stars and Shows
The Primetime Emmy Awards are a creature of habit. Once voters become enamored with a certain television show, actor or actress, they will continue to reward them with trophies year after year. These Emmy love fests have resulted in some questionable under-rewarding — and some pretty major over-rewarding. Take The Larry Sanders Show, for instance. For five straight years, the cast and crew of that canon-worthy HBO comedy had to get decked out in their tuxes and dresses, walk the red carpet and prepare acceptance speeches…only to see Frasier win every time. No offense, Kelsey Grammer and company (we do love your show), but really?!?
To avenge the winless, we went through the results of all 65 Emmy Awards and focused our sense of justice on those shows and actors that were arguably rewarded way more times than they deserved. From The Amazing Race to Justin Timberlake, here are 10 of the most over-awarded Emmy winners.
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‘The Amazing Race’
The Outstanding Reality-Competition Program Emmy was created in 2003 — and by 2007, it was a full-on joke. That's largely because CBS' globetrotting race competition dominated the category to a questionable degree. Top Chef briefly broke the streak in 2010, but then Race won the next two before losing last year to The Voice, which marked the first time a singing competition took home an Emmy in this category. Meanwhile, reality show fave Survivor has only scored four nods and lost each time. Frankly, we won't begin to take this category seriously until it finally nominates the Real World/Road Rules Challenge.
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Justin Timberlake on ‘Saturday Night Live’
If there's one thing Emmy voters can agree on, it's that Justin Timberlake should apparently host every single episode of Saturday Night Live. While we've argued that SNL has been largely under-rewarded at the Emmys, the 20/20 Experience singer seems to make it rain Emmys every time he visits Studio 8H. Timberlake won an Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Emmy in both 2009 and 2011 for his guest-hosting skills, and his 2011 opening monologue also scored him an Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics Emmy. J.T. even won an Emmy for "Dick in a Box"! Keep in mind, no fulltime not-ready-for-primetime player has won an Emmy since Gilda Radner, so Timberlake's Emmy success perhaps comes at the rest of SNL's expense.
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‘Hill Street Blues’
Steven Bochco's police procedural was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series all seven seasons it aired on NBC, and won the Emmy in that category in its first four seasons. That's not even counting the acting Emmys that Daniel Travanti, Betty Thomas, Michael Conrad and Veronica Hamel won, as well as the score of technical awards it garnered. Look, no one's denying that Hill Street Blues was an influential show, or that it planted the seeds for series like NYPD Blue and The Shield. But $100 says no one born after 1985 can name a single Hill Street officer. In fact, Bochco is arguably more known nowadays for giving us Doogie Howser than he is for this police drama. A recently released DVD box set will hopefully allow generations to sample this groundbreaking show firsthand, but given that it lives largely on its reputation, we're wondering if the sheer amount of gold this show took home shouldn't be filed under "overkill."
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‘Frasier’
This Cheers spin-off picked up where its predecessor's Emmy-winning ways left off, as the Kelsey Grammer vehicle won five straight Outstanding Comedy Series from 1994 to 1998. A little perspective: It also beat out Seinfeld and The Larry Sanders Show every single year. It would have been nice had Emmy voters spread the trophies around a little. Adding insult to injury: David Hyde Pierce was nominated for a record-setting 11 consecutive Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Emmys, and won the award four times. Unfortunately, three of those victories came at the expense of fellow nominee Jason Alexander, who never won an Emmy for portraying George Costanza on Seinfeld.
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Jeff Probst
We don't really have a horse in this race, but four straight Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program Emmys for Probst seems a little excessive — certainly way too many for a host whose main role is to travel to exotic locales and extinguish torches. Probst won from 2007 to 2011, depriving Ryan Seacrest a chance at victory when American Idol was still relevant.
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‘Law & Order: SVU’ Guest Appearances
Yes, we did say that Law & Order franchise regulars were chronically under-rewarded. But here's an Emmys tip: if you just stop by L&O: SVU, you're pretty much guaranteed you an Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series Emmy. Ann-Margret, Amanda Plummer, Ellen Burstyn, Cynthia Nixon and Leslie Caron all won for their one-off guest roles, while Robin Williams was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in 2008 for his run-in with Detectives Benson and Stabler. The great Elaine Stritch also picked up the Outstanding Guest Actress award for her 1993 appearance, her first of three Primetime Emmy wins.
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‘The Tonight Show With Jay Leno’
It's hard to believe now, but in 1995, Emmy voters deemed Jay Leno to be funnier than David Letterman, Bill Maher and Dennis Miller. Following the (first) Tonight Show power struggle, The Late Show With David Letterman scored the Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series in 1994 — but a year later, Leno somehow won in the same category, beating out Letterman, Politically Incorrect, Dennis Miller Live (this was mid-Nineties, hence pre-neocon Miller) and MTV Unplugged. Still, one Primetime Emmy for Leno is one Primetime Emmy too many, and Emmy voters never repeated the mistake as Letterman and The Daily Show With Jon Stewart shared 15 straight Emmy wins in the category until The Colbert Report broke the streak last year.
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Helen Hunt
At some point in the Nineties, the formula for successful sitcoms shifted; the days of shows hinging on one marquee name or a semi-famous duo playing husband-and-wife gave way to the ensembles of Seinfeld and Friends. However, the Emmys failed to change their nomination guidelines when it came to Outstanding Actress in a Comedy, so Mad About You's Helen Hunt was able to score four Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series wins. It's not that she wasn't worthy – Hunt seemed like she was slumming it on TV, since two of her Emmys came after she won the Best Actress Academy Award for As Good As It Gets — but she didn't have to face competition from Seinfeld's Julia Louis-Dreyfus or the Friends actresses, since they were duking it out in Outstanding Supporting Actress. It wasn't until Jennifer Aniston won an Outstanding Actress Emmy in 2002 that voters finally rectified the situation.
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Dennis Franz
Yes, that overzealous D.C. traffic cop from Die Hard 2 won four Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series for playing Detective Andy Sipowicz on NYPD Blue. While most actors would leverage those Emmys into another project or maybe silver screen success, Dennis Franz instead took his trophies and decided to retire. Seriously. After NYPD Blue came to an end in 2005, Franz stopped acting completely. His last film credit is a supporting role in 1998's City of Angels, and his last non-Blue TV appearance is voicing a character on The Mighty Ducks animated series (for which he was nominated for an Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program Daytime Emmy).
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John Larroquette
Let's call it Niles Crane Syndrome: Sometimes Emmy voters get really enamored with a certain character on television and just keep giving them awards. How else can anyone explain how John Larroquette won four straight Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on Night Court. Larroquette's winning streak came to an end thanks to Cheers' Woody Harrelson, who's now up for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his work on True Detective.