And the Winner Is: Pencils and the Emmy Awards

We live in an age where the spoiler is king. Information is readily available from all corners of the globe with just the click of a button, and the rise of social media has encouraged users to share their every move and thought with an audience of millions. However, if you’ve ever wondered why the results of the Emmy Awards and other Hollywood award shows remain unspoiled in the days leading up to the event, the answer lies with a few good men who can still keep a secret and wield one powerful pencil.

The accountants of Ernst and Young are tasked every year with counting the ballots for several award shows including the Emmy Awards, which were hosted by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences on September 18.

Ballots are mailed out to voting academy members every year; these members than fill out their ballot by hand and returned by mail, in person or by an over-worked, hyper-caffeinated personal assistant in between latte runs. Accountants had just a few short weeks to count each of the twenty thousand ballots after voting closed on August 26, tabulating and triple checking the ballots by hand.

Yes, that’s right – by hand.

Not only are the ballots counted filled out and counted by hand, the results are not entered into a computer database to prevent any online hackers from breaching security and compromising the data.

Clearly the handwritten system works; since joining forces with the Television Academy in 1978, Ernst and Young have overseen twenty-three spoiler free ceremonies. Due to confidentiality there is no word on whether or not the results are tabulated with ink or pencil, but should an actor fill out his ballot with a smudge-prone 6B pencil, it’s no problem; the accountants will contact anyone with an illegible ballot and ask them to resubmit their votes for accuracy.

While the golden Emmy statuette gets all the attention on the night of the big show, it’s safe to say that the real stars of the show are the pencil-pushers at Ernst and Young.

Image by Alan Light.