‘Outlander’ Emmy snub be damned, Starz boss says: ‘It is award-worthy’

“Outlander” was one of the biggest Emmy snubs of 2016, and fellow programs “Power” and “Survivor’s Remorse” are similarly doing great things on Starz. Network president Chris Albrecht tells the 2016 TCA summer press tour audience that he certainly wishes those shows would be acknowledged because he knows they’re worthy of those awards as much as any other show.

“We couldn’t be more proud of the work that is being done by the people on those shows. It is award-worthy. Whether it’s an Emmy award or not is not the point,” says Albrecht, adding that he doesn’t know when Starz will break through — maybe never.

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“I don’t think we’ll ever break through with those people on those shows. I was part of the team that invented how to campaign for Emmy awards. Trust me, it’s not a level playing field,” says Albrecht. “I spent years inside the TV Academy working it, and it took a lot of money and there’s a certain momentum that goes along with that … It’s a very distinct group of people, no matter how they try to expand their membership base. I think the TV Academy should be celebrating … an unprecedented time in our industry. They should be finding a way to platform the diversity, to have something that reflects this expansion and not have what is a continually, by the sheer numbers, needs to be a continually reductive process that ends up with a longer list of losers and the same number of winners. So I don’t worry about that.”

While he knows that the people working on “Outlander,” “Power” and “Survivor’s Remorse” would “like to see their names included among their peers,” he hopes that eventually some show from the network will be recognized.

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“There will be a show that come along, we won’t know which one it is .. and all of a sudden it’ll be the one. And it won’t be a better reason than ‘Outlander’ or ‘Power’ or ‘Survivor’s Remorse,’ it’ll just be a reason.”

But in the end, all the awards talk is “silly,” says Albrecht, because Starz knows they’re putting out quality programming.

“I try to not get caught up in what everyone else is doing. We’ve come upon this strategy of trying to serve under-served audiences. For us, for me, it’s really focusing on what is going to fulfill the strategy that we’ve come upon, not worrying about doing shows for everyone.”

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