Emmy Nominating Ballot Stage Reaches Deadline

This week, Emmy voters returned their nominating ballots to the academy with their suggestions of which shows and actors should get nominated.

All three CSI shows are in the running this year, and CSI and New York specifically put all their faith in the actors. But it all comes down to the Emmy voters, who were bombarded with CSI DVDs and ads.

One of the Hollywood Reporter ads featuredGeorge Eads (Nick Stokes), who has a good chance of catch the eyes of Emmy voters for the Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series category. Eads's performance in "Grave Danger" pleased the critics this year, and though the network has been pushing for William Petersen (Gil Grissom) and Marg Helgenberger (Catherine Willows) as well, Eads is the only supporting actor who has been awarded a Hollywood Reporter ad.

And the network must have a lot of faith in the CSI actors, as Emmy campaigns don't come cheap. According to the Hollywood Reporter, For Your Consideration ads for hit shows such as CSI can burn a $120,000 hole on CBS's pocket. With the clever packaging, discs, and DVD formats, mailing a single DVD box to every member of the Academy costs approximately $44,250. That means that this year, CBS spent approximately $132,750 on the CSI, Miami, and New York DVDs, all of which were nothing short of fancy. Add the For Your Consideration ads for the actors and the figure could make the humblest man cry. However, the costly campaign is worth it if CSI is awarded a statuette.

Eads isn't the only element of "Grave Danger" generating Emmy buzz. The episode is currently the top contender to snatch the Best Direction award, which would go straight to the hands of Quentin Tarantino. However, the director might not have the chance to go onstage to read his thank you speech. In order to attract more viewers, the Academy of TV Arts & Sciences has decided to eliminate live acceptance speeches from winners in all directing and writing categories. The academy hopes that a shorter ceremony will have less people tuning in to other networks.

The Emmy nominations will be announced on July 14th, while the ceremony airs on September 18th. For an in-depth look at the award process, visit the Hollywood Reporter.

Discuss this news item at Talk CSI!
 Add CSI Files RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a Desperate Housewives fan? Then visit GetDesperate.com!