Chapter 407: Wins and Losses

“Welcome to the 57th Emmy Awards! I am Ellen DeGeneres.” “The winner for Best Actress in a Comedy Series is Felicity Huffman for ‘Desperate Housewives’!” “The winner for Best Actor in a Comedy Series is Jim Parsons for ‘The Big Bang Theory’!” “Here are the finalists for Best Comedy Series: ‘Arrested Development,’ ‘Desperate Housewives,’ ‘Everybody Loves Raymond,’ ‘The Big Bang Theory,’ ‘Will & Grace’…”

As the night deepened, the 57th Emmy Awards ceremony reached its final stages amid applause. Earlier in the evening, aside from snagging the crowns for Best Actor and Actress in a Comedy Series, Flame Entertainment had not ascended to the winners’ podium for any other awards. Now, only the Best Drama and Comedy Series remained to be announced.

The atmosphere in the Sherrill Theatre in Los Angeles was tense, as the elegantly dressed guests all fixed their eyes on the stage. However, among the teams from ‘Prison Break,’ ‘The Big Bang Theory,’ and even ‘Desperate Housewives,’ nobody could find the wildly popular Magic BABY, Wang Yang. Although he had good reason to be absent, his absence still left fans and the audience somewhat disappointed—after all, he should have been one of the biggest protagonists of tonight’s gala event.

Of course, nobody forgot him, nor could they. The famous gay talk show host, Ellen DeGeneres, shocked everyone in her opening remarks by saying, “Wang Yang has been in a coma since last month, so he isn’t here tonight, but he asked me to say hello to everyone from the hospital, ‘Good evening, geek cowboys!'” This comment prompted roars of laughter from everyone, and even Wang Yang and Jessica laughed heartily in front of the TV.

Throughout the night, Ellen DeGeneres repeatedly joked about Wang Yang, causing bursts of laughter in the ceremony hall. Speaking about ‘DH,’ she said, “You probably don’t know this, but ‘Desperate-Housewives’ is a bothersome name, rejected by five TV networks! Then Wang Yang said, ‘I like ‘Desperate Housewives,’ I’m sure I have a lot to talk about with them.'” When it came to ‘TBBT,’ she went on, “The most amazing thing about Magic Yang is that he’s not a scientist.” “This summer, I watched a science fiction action movie, and I knew that Wang Yang should go into comedy—that’s the only way he could hope to become a star.” Then she mimicked how Wang Yang would use the Force to attack Sheldon Cooper, mimicking his tone, “You are now under my control!”…

It was rare for someone absent to be given so much attention, but for Wang Yang, it wasn’t the first time. This year, with only his co-creations competing for both the Drama and Comedy Series categories, coupled with the unavoidable recent ‘Firefly’ craze that had swept the TV awards, it was not surprising to see him being referenced repeatedly by the host.

While Ellen DeGeneres certainly entertained the guests and TV viewers, the more she joked, the more the fans regretted not being able to see Wang Yang speak on stage or engage in witticisms with DeGeneres. However, without winning an award, one wouldn’t necessarily get the chance to speak on stage. With the defeat in Best Comedy Series, fans watching the screen at home couldn’t help but feel anxious, it had to be…! Evelyn and other die-hard fans held their breath: “The Big Bang Theory, ‘The Big Bang Theory’—”

“COME-ON!” Watching the envelope being opened, Jessica widened her eyes on the couch, nervously praying in her heart, while the baby, affected by her emotions, kicked her several times. He had come away empty-handed at last year’s Emmys, and she did not want to see it happen again! Next to her, with his arms crossed over his chest, Wang Yang also raised his eyebrows, hoping for the best.

Also looking at the screen was Professor David Saltzberg, feeling a bit like waiting for the results of a long and arduous experiment; the staff from NBC, ABC Entertainment, Flame Entertainment, and others; as well as nominees who had not attended such as Natalie, Rachel, and a slew of colleagues and friends who supported Wang Yang and Flame Entertainment. ‘The Big Bang Theory’ had enough performance and critical acclaim to win, with its fresh storytelling style and genre, its only weakness being a lack of depth in its content; a problem not found in ‘Desperate Housewives,’ which gave Flame Entertainment a great chance to win the award.

“The winner for Best Comedy Series is ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’!”

“Ah—ah—” A mix of surprise and cheers rose in the Sherrill Theatre, followed by thunderous applause as the team from ‘ELR,’ including creator Philip Rosenthal, stars Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, Brad Garrett, and others joyfully got up, hugged each other in celebration, and then moved towards the stage to accept the award; meanwhile, ‘TBBT,’ ‘DH,’ and the other nominees like Bill Prady, Graham Linehan, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Marc Cherry had to clap their hands with mixed feelings and offer their congratulations.

‘Everybody Loves Raymond,’ with seven Emmy nominations for Best Comedy Series from 1999 to 2005, was the true darling of the ATAS judges, having won once before in 2003 at the 55th ceremony and now adding another trophy as the show approached its conclusion.

“Oh my God!” Seeing the trophy mercilessly slip away, Jessica covered her forehead and tasted the bitterness of disappointment once again, after a whole year. How could this be?! She slumped against the couch as if she were about to faint and looked at Wang Yang, who was laughing out loud, unable to help but let out a laugh herself, “Have you gone mad?” Wang Yang spread his hands and said, “That’s why it was absolutely right not to attend in person! And you were right too, an award is just one form of recognition, there are wins and there are losses, at least Firefly took home two awards.” Jessica found that her usual calm couldn’t extend to anything involving him, and in irritation she grabbed a cushion and threw it at the TV, “Everyone hates Raymond!”

“Shush!! Shh——shush!!” If you concentrated the booing from the audience in front of the television, it could deafen the ears of the ATAS judges! Countless angry fans questioned, cursed, and ranted, finding the outcome unbelievable and unsatisfying! The only reason this season’s poorly rated “ELR” could triumph over “TBBE” and “DH” was that it was its final season! Natalie, Rachel, and others complained as well, “TBBT” had the most wonderful season premiere, yet it failed to snatch this damned Emmy.

What enraged them even more was that the award for Outstanding Drama Series was taken by ABC’s new sci-fi mystery “Lost,” while “Prison Break” was halted at the nomination once again! With the departure of the amazing Yang and the storyline heading towards the mundane, PB fans knew the chances for “Prison Break” to crown itself with an Emmy were very slim. The question was, how profound was “Lost”? And when it came to nail-biting excitement, no show in the history of television around the world could top the first season of “Prison Break”! The second season was just as thrilling as any other show! Yet it was eliminated by the judges in two consecutive years.

Nonetheless, this year’s Emmy Awards ceremony wrapped up smoothly, with Firefly Entertainment taking home two major awards. “Lost,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “The Fallen Prince,” and “The Hot Spring Rehabilitation Center” swept the awards for Outstanding Drama, Comedy, Limited Series, and Television Movie respectively, while James Spader from “Boston Legal” retained the title of Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and Patricia Arquette won the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for “Medium.”

However, the media and the public were just beginning to stir up controversy, with Yahoo Entertainment reporting that “outdated thinking left this year’s Emmys lackluster”; FOX News, which supported “Arrested Development,” likewise questioned whether “ELR” was the winner of a popularity contest; NBC News made a sarcastic comment saying, “If higher ratings mean disqualification, it’s undoubtedly unfair”; ABC News stated it was a matter of shows being “overrated or underrated”…

The emergence of these arguments was due to the fact that the list of winners deviated from the analysis and predictions by many TV critics and journalists beforehand, with two cultural phenomenon-level new shows losing out to an old and tired series!

While the media were at odds with one another, disgruntled fans of the shows that did not win took full advantage of their poisonous tongues on message boards and blogs, venting their frustrations for their favorite shows, Bundy said, “Those judges are all a bunch of idiots with IQs under 50, so they don’t appreciate smart shows.”

“This Emmy Awards absolutely disgusted me, ‘FB’ and ‘TBBT’ should have walked away with the trophies,” Acenando said. “Although I’ve been a fan of Raymond for many years, it must be said that this year belonged to ‘TBBT’ or ‘DH’.” Perfecta said, “Raymond hasn’t made me laugh in five or six years, but tonight it finally made me laugh once. LOL, congrats to Sheldon on the win!” Tonyn said, “It’s really time for them to change some outdated ideas, you can’t think geeky scientists are absurd and Raymond is reality, in fact, they are both comedies, no doubt TBBT is the victor.” Yolanda said, “No wonder we didn’t see the amazing Yang, no wonder its ratings are just over ten million.” PKM said…

The consequences of offending the geeks were not just verbal attacks, as disgruntled PB and TBBT fans, each with their own skills, unleashed a myriad of spoof webpages and videos, especially on YOUTUBE. There, a user created the trending “Downfall parody videos,” where Bruno Ganz’s portrayal of Hitler rants about the stupidity of this year’s Emmys with the original audio but new subtitles added; there were also edited “TBBT” RAPs, Wang Yang RAPs, and Ellen DeGeneres Show’s “Firefly” trailer spoofs, and more.

All major channels began their 2005 TV autumn season one after another. “Prison Break” SE3 had already made its appearance on Monday, September 19th, maintaining its popularity; “The Big Bang Theory” SE2 was set to air on Thursday, September 22nd, and “Desperate Housewives” SE2 was coming out on Sunday, September 25th.

Every year new faces appeared in TV series, and this year saw ABC’s “Invasion,” CBS’s “How I Met Your Mother,” FOX’s “Bones,” NBC’s “My Name Is Earl”…

Firefly Entertainment was not introducing any new products this season, but as it continued to work on its four good shows, it was also planning to produce the “Firefly” TV series scheduled to hit the screens in the fall of 2006. With the strong popularity of the movie and NBC’s full support, the show had the potential to set a new record for TV series production costs in its quest to best showcase the colorful world of the space cowboys on screen. (