New York Times, Thursday, September 19, 2019

I always wanted to have PRI(ME)TI(ME)EMMY be the revealer, but what filled out the rest of the puzzle took a bit of work. Actors who have won the award were not lining up for symmetry. I had the full list, including DEBRA(ME)SSING, JA(ME)SGANDOLFINI, RIZAH(ME)D, A(ME)RICAFERRERA. Even dug deep to find PA(ME)LAADLON and (ME)RRITT WEVER. I even looked at hosts: SETH(ME)YERS, JIMMYKIM(ME)L and (ME)RVGRIFFEN. But no dice!

In the end, I'm very pleased with making the show names work. A(ME)RICAN CRI(ME) / STORY mirrored MAD(ME)N nicely. And PANTOMI(ME)QUIZ works because it's a nice piece of trivia that it was the first winner. And I think if I didn't include GA(ME)OFTHRONES I would have been in big trouble.

I hope you enjoyed it!

Every rebus puzzle needs some rationale, a raison d'etre, and this is as strong as any. Emmy-winning shows with M-E (say it out loud) contained within? Great stuff. It's almost as if George R.R. Martin titled his series a GAME OF THRONES for that exact purpose!

I don't watch much TV these days, so it's tough for me to tell how familiar I should be with most of the rest. MAD MEN? I've never seen an episode, but I've heard many talk about it, both pro and con. No bones there. HOMELAND, too.

AMERICAN CRIME / STORY … looking it up … ha ha ha, how appropriate that Felicity Huffman was on the show! Sad; she's a great actress. Not so great a criminal.

PANTOMIME QUIZ.

Let me rephrase that: PANTOMIME QUIZ?

Huh. I suppose it's worthwhile, as a winner of one of the first PRIMETIME EMMYs.

I suppose.

Maybe.

I'd have loved for each featured show to contain just one ME, or better yet, the number of Emmys the show has won. The latter would have been impossible, so I'd have settled for removing AMERICAN CRIME / STORY, and using simply EMMY as a revealer instead of PRIMETIME EMMY. It's confusing to have just one themer with two rebuses, without any reason except for BECAUSE REASONS.

I'd have also liked the game to be more intriguing, a la GAME OF THRONES (except for that last season, WTF Daenerys?). As much as I liked SHOW ME STATE, it's such an obvious answer / clue pair that it tipped off the fact that some trick was in play.

I often push constructors to integrate more long bonuses in increase solver pleasure, but what with LAH and NTWT required to get SANTA ANITA and SHOW ME STATE, breaking up the former would have better served the puzzle.

Overall, an enjoyable concept that directed me to look up some kinda sorta interesting trivia.

ADDED NOTE: Oops! Astute reader Agnes Davidson points out that AMERICAN CRIME is different than AMERICAN CRIME / STORY. Curiously, they've both won Emmys.