Poll Results - Oustanding Made For TV Movie

Before I talk about the results, let me offer a few thoughts about this category. I had a choice between this and Outstanding Miniseries. I chose this because I thought - still do in fact - that the Miniseries category seemed a little weak. I may have been wrong given voter response. Basically, before I issued my call to vote (cleverly disguised as a screed against Pat Robertson, although I stand by what I wrote) and went heavily into Blog Explosion, I had a grand total of four votes and each one of them was for a different movie. I think either Lackawanna Blues or The Wool Cap was the unlucky one with out any support. One of the people who responded to my call, Sparking, wrote " I only know The Office so how do I vote against it?" And therein lies the rub for both the Miniseries and Made For TV Movie categories - neither one is as accessible to the public as they have been in the past. Three of the nominated movies were on HBO, as was one of the miniseries. Of the nine nominated movies or miniseries only two of the miniseries - Elvis on CBS and The Lost Prince (the story of Prince John, youngest son of George V and Queen Mary, who suffered from epilepsy and probably some other form of mental handicap, and was kept in seclusion for virtually all of his life) produced by the BBC but airing in North America on PBS - appeared on broadcast television. The truth is that the broadcast networks - except for PBS through their association with British TV - have pretty much given up on miniseries and most don't have much time for made for TV movies. True NBC has Bryce Zabel's remake of The Poseidon Adventure (which I'm looking forward to by the way - saw the movie when it came out but am aware of its shortcomings) but none of the broadcast networks is going to risk the time or money on things like From The Earth To The Moon or Band Of Brothers (which I consider to be two of the finest miniseries ever made). As for Made For TV Movies, I may be mistaken but I think that only CBS is the only network still making a serious effort in this direction. In both categories the broadcast networks have abdicated their position to cable networks, and usually to the higher end cable networks, which is fine but it means that fewer people are seeing the nominated material.

Okay, rant over. We had eight votes. In a three way tie for third place, with one vote each we have Lackawanna Blues, The Wool Cap and The Office Special. In second place, with two votes is Warm Springs. The winner with three votes is The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers.

I've given my comments above. As to who will win, I think that the people who voted pretty much got it right in that it will come down to a contest between The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers and Warm Springs simply based on cast alone. Who will win? Search me.

I'll have the Reality/Competition Category (where I have a strong favourite as many of you probably know) up in the morning.