Emmy Song Competition: With Music Branch Facing Hundreds of Choices, Is It Fair?
Jon Burlingame Now that first-round Emmy voting is completed, who will be nominated for the season’s best song? RuPaul? Hailee Steinfeld? Darren Criss? Kristin Chenoweth?That’s right, all four actors are potential nominees in Emmy’s song competition, officially known as Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics … as are such musical personalities as the Weeknd, Sara Bareilles, Brad Paisley and Nick Jonas — along with about 200 other songwriters.If you’re an Emmy voter in the music branch, how do you decide what song to vote for? Do you pick something you already know and like, or do you investigate some, or all, of the many tunes entered?There are seven music categories, which encompass more than 300 separate programs, a daunting task for even