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Emmy snafu leaves Chris Rock off Emmy ballots

Chris Rock
Chris Rock  

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- In the latest incident in a bizarre year for awards shows, a Chris Rock comedy special was omitted from ballot papers sent out to Emmy voters.

HBO's "Chris Rock: Bigger and Badder," nominated for six trophies overall, was left off the ballot sent to the 120 people voting in the variety, music or comedy special category. The other four nominees were on the ballot.

John Leverence, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences vice president who administers the voting, said the error was discovered the day after the ballots were sent out, and that HBO was notified immediately, along with the voters who were contacted by phone.

"There is a fail-safe built into any inappropriate tabulation," Leverence said, "because your vote will only be counted if you make a numerical ranking of all five candidates."

If you've only done four, the accounting firm won't count them, and Ernst & Young is providing us with the handful of ballots that fall into that category. We will go back to those voters and give them another ballot because of the Academy error."

Though the voting period closed August 21, Leverence said the actual vote count on the category could change because of the error but added that the safeguarded system ensures that HBO gets as fair a shot as any nominee.

The Emmys will be awarded September 10.

Mailed ballots are an innovation for the Academy, which in the past used smaller numbers of voters -- 40 in this category -- who would be sequestered to watch nominees and vote in a tightly controlled environment. This year, the Academy tripled the number of voters and mailed the nominated programs in videotape form to voters, along with an affidavit which each voter was to sign attesting that he or she had watched all the candidates.

"We have had errors in the past with the blue ribbon panel system, but were able to get it sorted out right there, in a very controlled circumstance," said Leverence.

"This was the Academy's error, my error, but we immediately got on the phone after we made it and any sense there might have been noncommunication on the part of the Academy isn't fair."

Rock seemed unconcerned that getting left off the initial ballot could cost him a trophy. "I'm not worried. I'm sure the Academy will handle it accordingly," Rock said in a statement.

Rock has already won three Emmys, one for writing on his HBO talk show, two for his last HBO standup special "Bring the Pain."

The Rock goof isn't the first mistake to hit this year's Emmy nominations. Henry Winkler's nomination for guest actor in a comedy series was pulled after the Academy discovered that his stint on "Battery Park" was ineligible, as his episode didn't air until after Emmy's May 31 cutoff date.

Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.



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