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Ernst & Young Partner Might Be Hiding Emmy Results Under His Pillow, Fails to Land Groupies

On Sunday, The Emmys will be handed out to several cast and crew of Mad Men and a few other people. In order to give these proceedings some legitimacy, Ernst & Young partner Andy Sale (and possibly a few others) counts these votes and certify the results.

The L.A. Times published a Q&A with Sale today since the big day is nearly here and we took the liberty of bringing you the highlights.


For starters, Andy understands that the MSM could really get two shits about accountants except when there are audit failures or celebrities involved:

How cool is it to walk on the red carpet?

It’s one of those things where for at least one day a year, being an accountant is something the press wants to shine a light on.

He also doesn’t appreciate the LAT’s presumption that being an accountant is boring:

Is it the one day of the year it’s fun to be an accountant?

I think it’s fun to be an accountant every day.

Cool fact: if one of the presenters is Mel Gibson-drunk and just blurts out a name that is completely wrong, Andy must sprint on stage give the presenter a roundhouse uppercut and state unequivocally who correct winner is. Fortunately, that has happened…yet:

Has anyone ever screwed up reading a winner?

Part of our role is to ensure the appropriate name is read onstage. If a name was omitted or read inappropriately, we would be duty-bound to go onstage and correct it. It’s never happened. We hope to continue that streak.

The security around these events has to be tight and Sale and the team have to keep things creative when hiding the results. That means the results could be anywhere – a vault, his underwear drawer, Jon Hamm’s pants:

Let’s talk security. After you’ve finished counting the votes, where do they go?

Where they are secured and how they are secured changes every year. It can be in a vault. It can be under a pillow. We have multiple sets of envelopes and those multiple sets of envelopes arrive at the Nokia Theatre by different means. For security reasons, I can’t divulge those specific means. They’re delivered by a means both conventional and unconventional, and that’s all I’ll say on that.

And as glamorous as this gig is, it still not getting Andy as much action as he would like:

Do you get groupies out of this?

I can’t say I’ve seen a lot in the way of groupies.

Andy Sale is counting on Emmy Awards [Los Angeles Times]