Stephen Colbert: — by giving you a gooolden idol to worship. Kneel before your god, Babylon!
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.
Awards shows have spawned their own Stock Phrases and catchphrases:
- "The envelope, please..."
- "And the winner is..."/"And the [name of award] goes to..."
- "I'd like to thank my mom and dad..."
Usually features an Obituary Montage.
Examples:
Comedy
- The British Comedy Awards (for comedy).
Films — Animation
- Care Bears to the Rescue! Movie: Set in the continuity of Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot, it features the Care-a-Lot Rescue Awards, which included all of the catchphrases listed above and awards similar in style to Oscars, but shaped like Care Bears.
Films — Live-Action
- Academy Award
- The BAFTA Film Awards.
- The Golden Globes are a strange example. Hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a small group of less than a hundred international media journalists. You wouldn't think they would hold a lot of sway, but they throw a great party that invites Hollywood's finest to a hotel to get super drunk together for four hours. That more casual atmosphere and their (debatably unearned) status as an Oscar predictor have kept them just behind the Oscars and Grammys in the ratings.
Live-Action TV
- The Brewing Network: The Brewing Network Awards are usually the first episode of the year.
- Emmy Award
- This Hour Has 22 Minutes: Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien is approached at a press conference and awarded a faux Gemini (the Canadian television and movie award) for "Best Acting in a Political Role". Chrétien, not missing a beat, immediately responds, "I'd like to thank my mom, and my dad..."
Magazines
- NME: This British music magazine has hosted its own award show since 1953. Naturally, most of the awards are for music though there is a couple of awards for people outside the music medium (most consistently a best film and best TV award, sometimes best book).
Music
- The Brit Awards (for pop music)
- Christianity:
- In general, the Dove Awards cover a wide variety of music styles within that sphere.
- The gospel music industry has its own award show, The Stellars.
- Grammy Award
Radio
- Radio Disney hosts an annual music award show called the Radio Disney Music Awards. The show tends to have an emphasis on Teen Pop acts and winners are awarded a "Golden Mickey" trophy. It originally ran from 2001 to 2007 but was revived in 2013. It started being televised on Disney Channel in 2014. It was not held in 2020 and with the planned shutdown of Radio Disney in the first quarter of 2021, it is unknown if the awards will continue in any form.
Theatre
- City Dionysia Festival, the Ur-Example from Ancient Greece
- Tony Award
Web Original
- The Internet inevitably created its own set of awards:
- Webby Awards – all types of web content
- Streamy Awards – web video
- Shorty Awards – social media creators
- Streamer Awards – livestreamers
- "On Cinema": During their 3rd Annual Oscar livestream special, the crew gave out awards for movies called The Poppies though most of the awards went to the host's, Tim Heidecker web series "Decker". It was implied that the host was the only voter for these awards.
Western Animation
- Cartoon Network: Parodied with the "1st 13th Annual Fancy Anvil Awards Show Program Special (Live in Stereo)"
- KaBlam!: Parodied with the "KaBlammy Awards" in season one, with Henry and June giving out awards to the segments for categories such as "Best Acting While Impersonating an Egg" and "Best Supporting Monkey".
- The Patrick Star Show: "The Starry Awards" has Patrick throwing his own awards ceremony. Most awards aren't given in the way you'd expect: for example, Patrick reveals the winner for "Best Song" after singing a short intro. The award is given to the sheet music for the song itself.
