NBC slights Conan O’Brien, nixes Emmy Award category from televised schedule

Fans of Conan O’Brien snickered with glee when it was announced The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series and both Leno and Letterman did not. But, it appears as though NBC will have the last laugh as they have decided not to air the announcement of the nominees and the handing out of the award during their televised broadcast of the event August 29!

It seems to be a risky move given the fact that the category is the top award for such fan favorites as The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, Saturday Night Live and The Colbert Report and those folks will almost certainly show their support for CoCo by making jokes throughout the telecast. (I’m imagining orange ribbons on shirts and Steve Colbert whipping out a towering bright orange Conan wig when presenting an award.) It really seems like the network is cutting off their nose to spite their face on this one!

That being said, they most assuredly dodged the inevitable bullet of Conan’s acceptance speech when he wins the award.

UPDATE – Well poop. It turns out this was all a big misunderstanding. It seems the Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series WRITING award will not be televised this year. From HollywoodReporter.com: “According to a TV Academy spokesperson, before last year’s Emmys, the Academy and the guilds agreed that the writing and directing categories for outstanding variety, musical or comedy (or “VCM”) series would alternate each year from the primetime telecast to cut down on the show’s length. Last year, the VCM writing/directing series slots were in the CBS telecast; this year they will move to the Creative Arts Awards, which will also be televised, on Saturday, Aug. 21.” Conan is nominated in the writing category as well, so maybe there’s still something to be upset about? Nah, I guess not.

Here are all of the nominees that won’t be read on the night of the telecast:

Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series
The Colbert Report • Comedy Central
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart • Comedy Central
Real Time With Bill Maher • HBO
Saturday Night Live • NBC
The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien • NBC

The story first broke when Conan writer Deon Cole tweeted this message yesterday:

NOT “NBC” but the powers that be has sent us an email saying that the category we are nominated for will not be televised this year! really?

So maybe it isn’t actually NBC, but it still doesn’t make sense to cut out such an immensely popular category that is guaranteed to have an entertaining acceptance speech!