THIS JUST IN: CHANNEL 3 NEWS SPOILS EMMYS

This Just In: Channel 3 News Spoils Emmys

The production numbers!
The acceptance speeches! The bad gowns and worse hairdos!
With this kind of excitement in the air, it was easy to overlook a brief disclaimer at the beginning of ABC's televised Emmy Awards ceremony explaining that Channel 3 viewers would be seeing the gala event after the fact, via videotape delay. Little wonder that most fans who tuned in the TV industry's annual back-patting orgy on September 11 were blissfully unaware that what they were watching on television wasn't actually occurring "live" at Pasadena Civic Center.

But Valley couch potatoes were rudely reminded of the time lapse later in the evening. Had there been an Emmy category for committing the most chowder-headed blunder, Channel 3's news department would have been a shoo-in. While no such kudos exist, the KTVK-TV news department can take consolation in snaring New Times' highly coveted Bill Close Award.

Named in honor of legendary Channel 10 waxwork Bill Close, the prize is periodically bestowed upon local broadcast entities that go below and beside the call of duty.

The enfeebled ABC affiliate's news department did all that--and less--during a commercial break in the climactic half-hour of the network's three-hour Emmy marathon. With a handful of the major winners still to be announced, Channel 3 inexplicably spilled the beans in a spot hyping its upcoming 10 p.m. newscast.

As slack-jawed viewers stared in disbelief, the promo showed Frasier star Kelsey Grammer accepting the Emmy he had yet to win on the tape-delayed broadcast, while a seemingly precognitive voice-over further revealed that Grammer's series and Picket Fences had both copped top honors in their respective categories.

Congratulations to all you suspense quashers at Channel 3! Looks like we can always count on you to "push the envelope.