Part 1: Viva La Lemon!

Prehistoric knuckleheads, over-the-top crime solving and "throatily lusty" harmonies reign supreme over the 2nd Annual Lemon Awards, celebrating the worst in television for the 2007-08 season.

Of course, CBS laughfest... I mean, procedural, CSI: Miami (or CSI: Mi-ham-i!!), leads the pack with 5 nominations in Part 1, which includes Worst Drama, Worst Hit Show and even a Lifetime Un-Achievement Award nod to executive producer of the CSI franchise, Jerry Bruckheimer.

Putting the "ham" in "Mi-ham-i", is none other than forever-wooden, David Caruso, who plays famous detective, Horatio Caine. Caruso looks to earn back-to-back wins in the Worst Actor in a Drama category but he'll have to defeat some stiff competition; It took just 2 hours this season for Justin Breuning to earn a nod, courtesy of NBC's ridiculous revival of Knight Rider (a series also multi-nominated here), which really was a pilot and thus qualifies to be a series. Other Worst Drama Actor nods went to Anthony-Michael-Hall-lookalike, Kevin McKidd of the "USA Dead Zone"-lookalike, NBC's Journeyman and Tom Selleck, who replaced James Caan, on NBC's Las Vegas.

Continuing the train of over-the-topness on television, there rides the "amusez les yeux" that is CBS's Viva Laughlin. The show sung and danced its way to 3 top nods in Lemon Awards Part 1, including Worst Comedy/Musical (more "comedy" than "musical"), "rippingly riveting" Worst Actor in a Comedy/Musical (Lloyd Owen), and Worst Actress in a Comedy/Musical (Madchen Amick).

Going into the 2007 Fall TV season, perhaps ABC executives may have ignored the prophetic words of Family Guy's Brian and Stewie, during their song to open up the 2007 Primetime Emmy Awards back in September:

Brian: And if you start to crave a brand new TV thrill, they're always brewing up some brand new primetime swill...
Stewie: ...like the GEICO Cavemen (ABC)

It seems ABC used a 30-second concept and took it 29 minutes and 30 seconds too far with this sans-laughs sitcom, and thus earned it three nominations: Worst Comedy/Musical, Worst Actor in a Comedy/Musical (Bill English) and Worst Actress in a Comedy/Musical (Kaitlin Doubleday). In addition, ABC had another bad year in the comedy genre with its follies in Carpoolers, Notes from the Underbelly and never-dying According to Jim, which continues to "honor" Jim Belushi and Courtney Thorne-Smith for worst acting nods.

Courtesy of the problems between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, a new category has been created: Worst Strike-Filler Program. Shows in this category had to fill up the time on the networks' schedules while networks had to wait for their regularly scheduled shows to return with original programming. The shows mentioned here, however, perhaps deserved not to be seen at all, such as duds like NBC's My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad and quarterlife, the latter of which scored the lowest ratings in the Tuesday 10/9c timeslot on NBC since 1991. (Source)

Of course, kids all over America seemed to check out the Disney Channel in droves this past season, especially in August 2007 when over 17 million viewers tuned into Worst Comedy/Musical and Worst Hit Show nominee, High School Musical 2, starring Lemon nominees Zac Efron and Vanessa Anne Hudgens. Other Disney actors catching the Lemon-bug were double Worst Actress nominee Miley Cyrus (a nod for each for her portrayals of conveniently named high school student Miley Stewart and her pop "sensation" alter-ego, Hannah Montana!), and the Sprouse twins from Suite Life of Zack & Cody.


Although it is just our second annual Awards presentation, the history of bad acting (and producing) on television will not be ignored with the "Lifetime Un-Achievement Award". The winner of this category will be inducted into the Lemon Awards Hall of Shame, joining Mischa Barton from The O.C., who had been "inducted" by this forum in September 2007!

The majority of nominations were determined by a compilation of suggestions by this forum's members since March 24, 2008.

All PIFeedback.com forum members can vote in the following categories. Please feel free to state your vote, in detail, in this thread, as well as promote which nominees forum members should place their votes.
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Bye, Bye, "Bionic"

Out of the 51 forum member votes, we send off the 2007 update of NBC's Bionic Woman back to the television scrap heap with 2 major wins in the first half of the Second Annual Lemon Awards. The sci-fi drama picked up dis-honors for Worst Drama (narrowly defeating perennial CSI: Miami (CBS)) as well as the Bionic Woman herself, Michelle Ryan, for Worst Actress In A Drama.

It was a dead heat all spring between 2007 duds, Cavemen (ABC) and Viva Laughlin (CBS) but in the end, the CBS musical sang its way to winning Worst Comedy/Musical. Expect more "honors" for the show coming in June.

CSI: Miami (CBS) may have escaped winning Worst Drama but devastated the competition in the categories of Worst Hit Program and in an outright blowout, now 2-time Lemon Award winner, David Caruso, for Worst Actor in a Drama. As long as he's Horatio Caine, his winning streak may have no end in sight!

The mostly hotly-contested categories were in comedy/musical acting but in the end, we had a tie in the male category! Each Alec Baldwin from NBC's "30 Rock" and now 2-time Lemon Award winner Jim Belushi from ABC's "According to Jim" won. Parker Posey won from her defunct FOX sitcom, "The Return of Jezebel James" (with Viva Laughlin's Madchen Amick, Hannah Montana's Miley Cyrus and Carpoolers' Faith Ford a not-too-distant second).

As a result of the writers' strike, the category of Worst Strike-Filler Program was created and its first (and hopefully last) winner was NBC's "what-the-heck-were-these-TV-execs-thinking" game show, My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad.

Last, and certainly least, to join The O.C.'s Mischa Barton into the Lemon Awards Hall of Shame is none other than all-time ham, David Hasselhoff. Expect his name to pop up once more in Part 2 of the Lemons due to his guest spot in the 2008 version of NBC's Knight Rider.


The "winners" were announced here on June 11, 2008 7:30pm ET

Part 2 of the Lemon Awards are currently online

After 51 votes, the Lemon Award "winners" in each category are:

Worst Drama
Bionic Woman (NBC) 11 votes

Worst Comedy/Musical
Viva Laughlin (CBS) 14 votes

Worst Hit Program
CSI: Miami (CBS) 12 votes

Worst Actor in a Drama
David Caruso, CSI: Miami (CBS) 33 votes (second consecutive win)

Worst Actress in a Drama
Michelle Ryan, Bionic Woman (NBC) 19 votes

Worst Actor in a Comedy/Musical
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock (NBC) 10 votes (tie)
Jim Belushi, According to Jim (ABC) 10 votes (tie; second consecutive win)

Worst Actress in a Comedy/Musical
Parker Posey, The Return of Jezebel James (FOX) 11 votes

Worst Strike-Filler Program
My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad (NBC) 22 votes

Lifetime Un-Achievement Award and induction into the Lemon Awards Hall of Shame
David Hasselhoff, "Baywatch," "Knight Rider", etc. 22 votes

Worst Actor in a Comedy/Musical
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock (NBC) 10 votes (tie)
Jim Belushi, According to Jim (ABC) 10 votes (tie; second consecutive win)

Worst Actress in a Comedy/Musical
Parker Posey, The Return of Jezebel James (FOX) 10 votes

Worst Strike-Filler Program
My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad (NBC) 22 votes

Lifetime Un-Achievement Award and induction into the Lemon Awards Hall of Shame
David Hasselhoff, "Baywatch," "Knight Rider", etc. 19 votes

Question:
In general, are you satisfied by who and what "won" in these categories?

Choices:
Yes
No

 

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Douglas,

lemons08-part1.gif (45 KB, 51 downloads)

Worst Drama: Hidden Palms
Worst Comedy/Musical: Viva Laughlin
Worst Hit Program: Grey's Anatomy
Worst Actor in a Drama: David Caruso
Worst Actress in a Drama: Emily Procter
Worst Actor in a Comedy/Musical: Lloyd Owen
Worst Actress in a Comedy/Musical: Courtney Thorne-Smith - quite a plunge from her MP days.
Worst Strike-Filler Program: My Dad is Better than Your Dad - would vote Quarterlife, but it was gone so quick the title doesn't even do it justice
Lifetime Unachievement Award: The always annoying Andrew Shue

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tvfan300,

You gotta vote William Frawley, "I Love Lucy" for the UN-ACHIEVEMENT Award. This guy makes William Shatner look like... well, Patrick Stewart.

Worst Drama: John From Cincinnati (if you actually saw it, you'd agree!)
Worst Comedy/Musical: Caveman (Oh come now, this show was much worse than Viva!)
Worst Hit Program: CSI-Miami
Worst Actor in a Drama: David Caruso
Worst Actress in a Drama: Michelle Ryan, Bionic Woman (wooden actress sunk this promising premise)
Worst Actor in a Comedy/Musical: Bill English, Cavemen (Alec Baldwin? That nomination is nuts!)
Worst Actress in a Comedy/Musical: Courtney Thorne-Smith (kind of by default - and Madchen Amick was the only bright spot on Viva Laughlin, so obviously, whoever nominated her never actually saw the show.)
Worst Strike-Filler Program: My Dad is Better than Your Dad
Lifetime Unachievement Award: Anson Williams, "Happy Days"

quote:

Originally posted by TV-aholic:
You gotta vote William Frawley, "I Love Lucy" for the UN-ACHIEVEMENT Award. This guy makes William Shatner look like... well, Patrick Stewart.

Oh please. He's still three times better than Andrew Shue or Anson Williams.

Worst Drama: Bionic Woman
Worst Comedy/Musical: The Return of Jezebel James
Worst Hit Program: Moment of Truth
Worst Actor in a Drama: Patrick Dempsey, Grey's Anatomy
Worst Actress in a Drama: Michelle Ryan, Bionic Woman
Worst Actor in a Comedy/Musical: Jerry O'Connell, Carpoolers
Worst Actress in a Comedy/Musical: Faith Ford, Carpoolers
Worst Strike-Filler Program: Big Brother 9
Lifetime Unachievement Award: Pamela Anderson

I wish I can vote both CSI: Miami and The Moment of Truth as the worst hit program.

David Caruso and CI Miami are easy "winners" in this contest!

Have you seen him act outside of I Love Lucy? He is just as bad in the Babe Ruth Story as I would be in the Babe Ruth Story.

quote:

Originally posted by mushu_jj:

quote:

Originally posted by TV-aholic:
You gotta vote William Frawley, "I Love Lucy" for the UN-ACHIEVEMENT Award. This guy makes William Shatner look like... well, Patrick Stewart.

Oh please. He's still three times better than Andrew Shue or Anson Williams.

Douglas, no NBC nomination in the Lifetime Unachievment Award Category? NBC truly deserves this award.

Worst Drama: CSI: Miami
Worst Comedy: Cavemen
Worst Hit Program: CSI: Miami
Worst Actor in a Drama: David Caruso, CSI: Miami
Worst Actress in a Drama: Ellen Pompeo, Grey's Anatomy
Worst Actor in a Comedy: Jim Belushi, According to Jim
Worst Actress in a Comedy: Miley Cyrus (as Miley Stewart), Hannah Montana
Worst Strike-Filler Program: My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad
Lifetime..: Jerry Seinfeld, Seinfeld

I'm confused, why do you have Alec Baldwin in the 'Worst Actor in a Comedy' category, he won a SAG award and Golden Globe for that role. (or Seinfeld for that matter)

And New Amsterdam should be up there in the Worst Drama list.

Don't forget to vote so we can top last years total of 97 votes!

After 26 votes so far, it appears CSI: Miami and its "actors" are well on their way to receiving the most "awards"!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tvfan300,

I'm extending the vote for Part 1 until June 11 @ 7/6c so I can further gather suggestions for nominees for Part 2.

Please provide these suggestions in this thread until June 11.

Here's a few nominees.
Worst Supporting Actress in a Drama: Olivia Wilde -- House (more the writers fault than hers).

Worst Guest Actress in a Comedy/Drama/Reality Show: Paris Hilton -- My Name is Earl

Worst Season or Series Finale: Scrubs

I'm pretty much useless for the rest. I don't watch reality shows and I like all the actors on the scripted shows I watch.