Award Show

Multi-hour annual program, typically broadcast early in the year, dedicated to showcasing an organization (usually involved in the media in some way) by handing out little statuettes to a small number of its members. The presentation of the awards themselves is interleaved with Filler and musical numbers.

At their best, awards shows can be bright, entertaining television celebrating the best and brightest of a particular field of endeavor. Even then, though, such programs are often slow and ponderous, with only the host's jokes and the various musical numbers to liven things up between the inevitable Award Snub and the N variations of the same basic "thank you" speech every recipient gives.

Usually features an Obituary Montage.

And, no matter what the awards are for, the show's primary purpose is to advertise the organization that hands out the awards. Yes, these are highly-publicized infomercials.


 * Beam Me Up, Scotty: Sally Field didn't say "You like me, you really like me!" at the 1985 Oscars. What she said was "I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!"
 * Stock Phrases and Catch Phrases:
 * "I'd like to thank my mom and dad..."
 * "The envelope please..."
 * "And the winner is..." / "And the award/[name of award] goes to..."

Actual Award Shows

 * City Dionysia. The Ur Example from Ancient Greece
 * The big three in the US are The Emmys, The Grammys and The Oscars.
 * Don't forget the Tonys, at least for the theatre gurus. And the Oscar precursors (and, usually, predictors), the Golden Globes.
 * And in the UK, the BAFTAs.
 * Other televised UK awards shows include The Brit Awards (for pop music), and The British Comedy Awards (for comedy).
 * The Gospel Music Industry has its own award show, The Stellars.
 * Canada has the Junos for music and the Canadian Screen Awards for film and television (replacing the Genies and the Geminis). The Canadian Screen Awards are relatively new - they were first awarded in 2013 - and don't have an official nickname yet. (In 2017, Howie Mandel suggested calling them the "STDs", for "Screen, Television and Digital".)

Live-Action TV

 * Spoofed in This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien is approached at a press conference and awarded a faux Gemini for "Best Acting in a Political Role". Chretien, not missing a beat, immediately responds, "I'd like to thank my mom, and my dad..."

Western Animation

 * Parodied on KaBlam! with the "KaBlammy Awards" in season one, and episode 29.
 * The Care Bears to the Rescue Movie (set in the continuity of Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot) features the Care-a-Lot Rescue Awards, which included all of the Catch Phrases listed above and awards similar in style to Oscars, but shaped like Care Bears.