Lost Emmy Farewell Comes Up Short

The Lost Emmys presence was a curious subplot last night. With various Lost Emmy nominations for its final season, a big Lost Emmy sendoff was a possibility. Award shows like to honor shows and actors on their last go around, and this was certainly the last for the 2005 Best Drama winner. With the show and a few actors up for big prizes, it could have easily gotten one victory as a goodbye gift. Yet instead, the final Lost Emmys performance came up short in all categories.

The show did get one win in the Creative Arts awards last week, for Single-Camera Picture Editing. Yet the series, Matthew Fox, Michael Emerson, Terry O'Quinn, writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, and director Jack Bender all had their shots last night. However, none of them could take advantage.

The first sign of a Lost Emmy shutout came when both O'Quinn and Emerson lost to Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul. O'Quinn and Emerson had been the show's only major Emmy winners since its Best Drama win five years ago. If they were going to get one last farewell award, O'Quinn and Emerson had the best shot, but Paul had too much momentum to be stopped.

Meanwhile, Lindelof and Cuse lost the writing award to Mad Men, while Bender lost to Dexter's Steve Shill. After that, the chances of a big Lost Emmys win got more remote, since the series and Matthew Fox were long shots. Fox fell to another Breaking Bad actor, Bryan Cranston, with the show being defeated by another AMC powerhouse, Mad Men.

After only one Lost Emmy win for the final season, the series completed a complicated history with the Television Academy. Their Best Drama win for the freshman season solidified their power, and status as a cult phenomenon. But as the story got more complicated and divisive, its serialized format became less award-friendly.

For the next five years, the show's only big success on Emmy night was for O'Quinn in 2007, and for Emerson in 2009. However, pundits suspected that it could get some last awards, now that its six-year run was over. The likes of The Sopranos and Everybody Loves Raymond were sent off with series victories, as was the end of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

Instead, the Lost Emmys shutout last night showed that The End wasn't enough for the Academy. Since fans are still divided over Season 6, and the finale in general, perhaps they aren't too broken up by it. Mad Men and Breaking Bad turned out to be more powerful than the island, and the rest of the field in general.

Yet no amount of Lost Emmy defeats will impact those who still defend the show. Since the Season 6 DVD and Complete Collection came out last week, they are currently too busy reliving the mystery one last time.

Sources

Airlock Alpha- "Lost, Flashforward Come Up Mostly Empty At Emmys"