Television’s biggest award could go to its least important streaming service: Quibi. The service was nominated for 10 Emmy Awards, of which it is almost certain to win at least one.
Quibi, who according to estimated estimates retained only 8 percent of people who signed up for his three-month free trial, has not started publishing content at the same level as Breaking Bad or game of Thrones. Instead, the short-form streaming service is competing in a game that no one else is playing.
To the letter, Quibi’s nominations and his almost certain victory seem impossible: Quibi only has 16 original drama or comedy shows, has been around for just over three months, and has had the same impact on the media landscape as a water balloon. An Abrams tank.
But the potential success of the Quibi Awards has almost nothing to do with the quality of its content or the success (or lack thereof) of the service. It has everything to do with it kind of content that Quibi is doing. Let’s look at the categories in which Quibi is nominated, shall we? (Quibi nominations in bold for emphasis):
Best actor in a short comedy or drama series
- Laurence Fishburne as Lt. Steven Poincy, #FreeRayshawn (Quibi)
- Stephan James as Rayshawn, #FreeRayshawn (Quibi)
- Christoph Waltz as Miles Sellers, Most dangerous game (Quibi)
- Corey Hawkins as Paul, Survive (Quibi)
- Mamoudou Athie as Jerome, Oh Jerome, no (FX)
Best actress in a short comedy or drama series
- Anna Kendrick as Cody, Fool (Quibi)
- Kaitlin Olson as Cricket, Turned around (Quibi)
- Jasmine Cephas Jones as Tyisha, #FreeRayshawn (Quibi)
- Kerri Kenney-Silver as Deputy Trudy Wiegel, Reno 911! (Quibi)
- Rain Valdez as Belle Jonas, Razor tongue (Youtube)
Exceptional short comedy or drama series
- Best Call Saul Employee Training: Ethics Training with Kim Wexler (AMC)
- The Good Place presents: the selection (NBC)
- Star Trek: short walks (Full access to CBS)
- Reno 911! (Quibi)
- Most dangerous game (Quibi)
Quibi’s nominations are found exclusively in the Emmy categories for short. Her competition is some spin-offs from bigger show web series and a YouTube series. Unless things go very Wrong for the streaming service focused on mobile devices, it will go with at least one award in September.
Are these prestige categories? Not to the extent that the Best Actor, Actress and Drama categories are. But! They are still Emmy Awards Quibi can boast of, and they use them to market their shows to both viewers and advertisers. Quibi’s overall strategy of big-budget, small-runtime shows with attached A-list actors may not have done much to get viewers tuned in, but they’re pretty much tailor-made for these short-form Emmy categories. , categories in which Quibi is prepared to dominate.
The Emmy Awards are not an ointment to low subscriber numbers, nor is a victory likely to help reverse Quibi’s fortune. A Sensor Tower report in early July claimed that the company was only able to convert approximately 72,000 of its 910,000 initial users into paid customers when the three-month free trial offer expired. Quibi refuted those numbers at the time, claiming that the Sensor Tower numbers were “incorrect in an order of magnitude,” but was unable to provide his own subscriber count. Even if the service fails to turn things around, an Emmy Award or two might not be a bad consolation award.
