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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Exclusive! Now it's a Daytime Emmy revolt as TV Academy cuts Courtroom category out of live televised show!


While the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has bowed to protests and reversed its plan to move some major Emmy Award categories off the live CBS telecast on September 20th, an equally significant slight has been engineered by producers of the Daytime Emmy Awards.

Producers, talent and agents alike are in an uproar over the decision by the geniuses at the TV Academy and The CW to cut the Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program category-- the most controversial, sensational and talked-about in last year's Daytime Emmy show-- out of the August 30th live broadcast!

Last year's 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, broadcast on ABC, was the inaugural year for the Legal/Courtroom Emmy. A national prime time audience saw the upstart Cristina's Court and its star Cristina Perez take the top prize in what was considered a major upset. Many believed the category had been invented in order to give Judge Judy a statuette, after years of being lumped in with talk shows-- and losing.

With both shows-- and both women-- nominated again this year, their competition was anticipated as the major grudge match of the 36th Daytime Emmy show. Adding to the drama between the sexy blonde Latina and the crusty New York City jurist was the shocking fact that Cristina's Court had been canceled by Fox midway through its victory season-- and replaced by a bencher starring boss Roger Ailes' GOP political pal Jeanine Pirro.

As popular as the courtroom programs may be-- they out-rate the soaps-- the Legal/Courtroom category has been moved from the big show at the Orpheum Theatre to a nontelevised ceremony at the Bonaventure Hotel the night before. Already, conspiracy theories are floating:

* All the votes are in. Do the producers know the results and want to spare Judy Scheindlin the embarrassment after her disappointment was caught on camera last year?

* Do they want tio avoid embarrassing the suits who canceled Cristina?

* Or are they simply boneheads?

We hear Judge Judy is boycotting the prime time telecast. There's still time to set things right.

Developing...

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