The Emmys are a waste of time

On NPR, they were busy ignoring the Charlie Kirk assassination story by focusing on what really matters: this year’s Emmy Awards, which took place in Beverly Hills. I realized I didn’t recognize a single show – or actor. Then I remembered that I haven’t watched an actual television series in years. What is there to watch?

At its core, the reason is because everyone in Hollywood hates you

The Emmys are a celebration of TV stars I’ve never heard of, shows I don’t watch and a never-ending succession of narcissists delivering the same woke diatribes into the microphone. You hate Trump, too? That’s one we’ve never heard before, how original. The nation is eager to hear from the best supporting actress winner about how the right must atone for causing Kirk’s death. I await your suggestions, O Emmy winner!

The good news about these execrable awards shows is that they tend to expose who these people are in real life: fools with foolish political stances.

This same talent pool is the reason Hollywood and TV production are in such dire straits. The people in front of and behind the cameras are, almost without exception, people of the left. The decision-makers who pay them are not yet willing to do what must be done to prevent their steep slide into cultural irrelevance and economic collapse.

But, stricken with falling box-office revenues and realizing that going woke is making it go broke, Hollywood has recently made the slightest feint to the right. It is cynically exploiting certain “right-wing” aesthetics in a naked attempt to seem “unwoke,” but it is a paper-thin attempt at best.

For example, Disney recently announced it is going to be looking for pitches that appeal to young male audiences – stories free of the usual woke bromides. According to reports, Disney Studios is actively looking for movie ideas aimed at males aged 13 to 28 about “splashy global adventures and treasure hunts” that evoke “classic tales of heroism and exploration.”

Yes, if only Disney owned any adventure stories that could appeal to boys and young men! Like, I don’t know, some sort of giant epic space saga about a young knight, a gunslinger and robots, and they all get to use swords made of lasers. Or maybe they could make a series about swashbucking pirates, or marvelous superheroes with special powers? Ah well, never mind. I’m sure Disney will come up with something.

Just a few short years ago, it made a Buzz Lightyear spinoff movie that was all about Buzz and his black lesbian best friend. Imagine my shock when I heard most little boys had no interest in seeing it.

Taylor Sheridan, Hollywood’s token cowboy creator, has found enormous success with red-blooded all-American series such as Yellowstone (Montana ranchers) and Landman (Texas oil men), and he’s in development on even more stories set in the heartlands of America. But his stars and some of his storylines skew left wing. His creative choices and his hatred for President Trump reveal his true beliefs – and, let’s face it, no openly conservative creative would ever be allowed to enjoy the mainstream success that he has.

Even the new Superman movie was infected with tired talking points reminiscent of Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. A major plot point revolved around Superman, the illegal “immigrant” to America. I guess that makes ET: The Unaccompanied Minor Extra-Terrestrial a sure thing.

Nothing coming out of Hollywood these days can truly appeal to the other half of the country the way it used to because even its weak attempts to do so (for example, the Formula One movie) are cast with actors who hate the right and producers, set designers, cinematographers and so on who secretly, or publicly, cheered a political assassination.

When the news of Kirk’s death was announced, a friend in Hollywood was on the phone with his producing partner, a normie Democrat. The friend heard the news and gloated. “Good. Awesome. One fewer of them for us to deal with.”

This is the sentiment of a large number of the people making television and movies in the United States. And we wonder why there never seems to be anything good to watch, and why so many shows are needlessly politicized with tacky left-wing messaging. At its core, the reason is because everyone in Hollywood hates you. They want to make two kinds of TV shows: one to entertain their political allies and the other to re-educate and indoctrinate their political foes.

A new Apple TV+ series that was set to premiere on September 26 perfectly exposes Hollywood’s clumsy approach to the right. The Savant stars Jessica Chastain as an all-knowing, genius undercover investigator who spends her nights on her computer “deep in extremist and alt-right online communities, trying to anticipate and stop domestic terror plots and hate-fueled violence before they happen.” Oh dear. Apparently her character is based on a real woman who works at the Anti-Defamation League and looks for “right-wing extremists” on the internet.

Imagine debuting this show a mere two weeks after a left-wing extremist deep in questionable online communities murders a right-wing activist. This premise is offensive and absurd – but to the creators and stars I’m sure it felt relevant and timely.

So, in the aftermath of Kirk’s murder and the wave of political violence that is happening on a regular basis in the United States, Apple wisely decided to shelve The Savant. Maybe they can make it relevant by totally rewriting it. May I suggest you have Chastain’s character go undercover in the furry communities on Discord?

But the structural problem with Hollywood is not going away. To them, the obstacle to success is not their lame story ideas that always make the bad guy a conservative. The problem is that you are still too stupid to agree with them.

This article was originally published in The Spectator’s October 13, 2025 World edition.