The Year So Far: Best/Worst Awards Show Moments
With the foremost awards for Film, Music, Theatre and Sports behind us already, and the list of nominees already announced for the Television equivalent, there is no shortage of "awards show 2018" content to analyze. I have mentioned before, I am a massive sucker for awards shows, and do my best to watch every minute of every major one, even if I know it's going to end in disappointment. Sadly, that last statement has been true of just about every show this year: an overall good ceremony finishing in an anticlimactic letdown. Here's my best attempt at finding a bright spot, and choosing just one awards show bummer from this year.
Best Awards Show Moment: The Arthur Ashe Award
It's kind of sad that I have to go to the ESPYs, an increasingly irrelevant ESPN promotion that masquerades as a Sports award show, to find the best moment, such is the state of 2018 awards. The Arthur Ashe Courage Award is awarded annually to not necessarily athletes, but sports figures who do something that transcends sports. It's hard to think of a better recipient, in the midst of the great reckoning of and fall from grace for sexual predators, than the multitudes of women who were victims of USA Gymnastics coach Larry Nassar's horrible years of sexual abuse. The bravery they displayed in coming forth, knowing the backlash and vitriol they might receive, and in facing their abuser in several court cases, was as inspiring as it was heartbreakingly necessary. For ESPN to recognize that and ultimately reserve the last award of the night for the survivors in order to let them share their story was a bold move, and the hundreds of disgusting comments from male sports fans after the fact proved the award's necessity.
Other highlights: Kendrick Lamar's Grammy performance, The Americans finally getting their deserved Emmy nods, Jordan Peele's Oscar, Grammys for The National and for Chris Stapleton, Seth Meyers' Golden Globe monologue, Jimmy Kimmel's running jet-ski gag at the Oscars, Frances McDormand and Chloe Kim's trans-awardshow friendship
Worst Awards Show Moment: Grammy 0-fers
If this is going to be an annual piece, at this point it's likely safe to just assume that the annual 'lowlight of the year so far' is going to be something Grammy-related. 2 years ago, I fumed about Taylor Swift beating Kendrick Lamar. Last year, I screamed about Beyoncé's grand snub. This year, it's just across-the-board shutouts that have me livid. As I wrote back in January, the Grammys' annual "let down most music fans" night actually was quite good for a while. Great performances (or in the case of my favorite rapper, legendary performances) throughout, some inspiring speeches, and even some solid winners! Kendrick nearly swept the Rap awards, he won Best Music Video, The National scored a deserving upset in the Best Alternative Album category, and Chris Stapleton nearly swept the Country awards. But by the end of the night, things had gone predictably south. Bruno Mars played the 2018 role of Adele, scoring a grand sweep of the major awards in a case of "he's talented, but...really??" Lorde's Melodrama, one of the best albums of the year, went winless, and the artist herself was denied the opportunity to perform. And a ceremony that was celebrated for having the most diverse and most hip-hop nominees to date saw Rap shut out of the major awards yet again, Childish Gambino win just 1 out of his 5 nominations, and SZA and Jay-Z go a combined 0 for 12 in their fields. The only positive result was inspiring Jay-Z's line from his latest single "Tell the Grammys 'fuck that 0-for-8 shit'/Have you ever seen a crowd goin' apeshit?"
Other lowlights: The most predictable Oscars in years, basically all hosting gigs, Lady Bird and Get Out winning a combined 1 Oscar, The Good Place and Noah Emmerich again snubbed at the Emmys, D.J. Khaled at the Grammys, Sufjan Stevens' Best Song snub, anything but "UMBC over Virginia" winning Best Moment at the ESPYS