The Emmys: Breaking Same

59th Primetime Emmy Awards (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In a world where everything changes in the blink of an eye, the Emmy Awards are a blessed oasis of sameness.  Whether out of inertia or just plain laziness, the Television Academy (with few exceptions) awards those who have been nominated year after year and usually win year after year.  Consistency is a good thing, unless you're trying to keep an audience from going elsewhere.

The evening begins with a monologue from a late night talk show host of the network that is televising the Emmys.  This year it was Seth Meyers.  He's NBC's way of reminding folks that he's no longer on "Saturday Night Live", and has his own talk show now.  He follows Jimmy Fallon.

Stop us if you've heard these before.  "Modern Family" won for best comedy for the fifth consecutive year.  "Breaking Bad" for a second year as best drama.  "The Colbert Report" repeated for best variety show.  And "The Amazing Race" has, not so amazingly, won another Emmy for best reality competition.

Even some of the actors who won Emmys have been to the podium before.  First, the comedy category:  Ty Burrell ("Modern Family") for best supporting actor.  Allison Janney ("Mom") for best supporting actress.  Jim Parsons ("Big Bang Theory") for best actor.  Julia Louis-Dreyfus ("Veep") for best actress.

In the drama category:  Aaron Paul (supporting actor), Anne Gunn (supporting actress) and Bryan Cranston (lead actor) all won for "Breaking Bad", which just completed its final season.

There were exceptions to the sameness.  "Fargo" won for best miniseries.  "The Normal Heart" won for best movie.  And broadcast TV was thrown a bone when Julianna Margulies got the best actress nod for the CBS drama "The Good Wife".

Even the "In Memoriam" seemed familiar.  Hire a pop star--in this case Sara Bareilles--to sing a mournful tune while images of the dearly departed who had anything to do with TV float by to polite applause.  Then save the biggest name for last.  In this case, it was Robin Williams who was saluted by Billy Crystal.  Watching clips of Williams reminded us that he never stopped trying to make us laugh.  Sometimes he tried too hard, and that might have been part of the reason why he burned out.

The 66th Primetime Emmy Awards, rescheduled for a Monday night in late August this year because of NBC's commitment to Sunday night NFL football, may have found its niche in what used to be called summer rerun season.  As long as they nominate the same shows and the same actors year after year, the Emmys may as well be a rerun in itself.