My first crush was television. As a kid I couldn’t get enough of it. Chez Helene, The Friendly Giant and Captain Kangaroo. After 4, my world was black and white, films and I Love Lucy. Saturday, I anticipated Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. Sunday night was Bonanza and Ed Sullivan. I loved TV so much that I chose to attend broadcasting school after high school. I spent 15 years of my life in radio and TV. I mention this so you will understand the depth of my disappointment with last night’s Emmy broadcast.

I grew up as live television was replaced by taped and edited shows. I never lost my appreciation for live broadcasts. I am in the audience when a live broadcast occurs just because of the thrill of the unknown that is inherent. Last night’s extensive technical sound failure was unforgiveable. Or was it just a sign of the  times? Are there insufficient live broadcast opportunities that the skill is no longer there to produce a multimillion dollar awards show live?

The first few minutes of Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue was incomprehensible to those watching at home. From there the sound only got worse. Repeatedly. No apologies no acknowledgement. No one was on quality control. No one appeared to care. No one appeared capable of correcting the problem during a show marking television excellence. Am I the only one who appreciated the irony?

I hope that CTV gets a rebate, and every other network who carried the live feed. I bailed out after an hour. Will I be back next year? Probably not.