The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards were held on September 20, 2009 on CBS. It took place at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California. On July 13, 2009, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced that Neil Patrick Harris would host the ceremony, which drew 13.3 million viewers.
"30 Rock" became the sixth show to win Outstanding Comedy Series three consecutive years, winning three major awards on that night. "30 Rock" made history when it smashed the record for most major nominations by a comedy series with 18. "The Cosby Show" had held the record of 13 since 1986, while "30 Rock" had tied this the previous year. The 18 major nominations became the third biggest record of all time, behind record number of 21 in 1977 by "Roots", and 19 in 1994 by "NYPD Blue". These records still stand.
After teaching himself computer programming in the 2000s, Shefik secured his first position in the field of Internet Technology, as Technical Producer at the internationally renowned magazine TIME and its website time.com. His primary duties involved developing web-based applications, which served millions of website visitors daily. In addition, Shefik was tasked with conducting regular training sessions with key members of the editorial staff, to educate them on the proper usage and best practices of the technology that Shefik developed and maintained on a daily basis. As such, he engaged with staff across TIME's international bureaus, and aligned himself with the understanding of cultural conditions.
Coincidentally, while Shefik worked at TIME, Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States. Shefik was already in the process of developing a web-based live blogging system for usage at TIME (an idea he proposed). Therefore, the United States presidential election of 2008 served as a launch for the live blogging system. Shefik's development proved to be successful, as his idea came to fruition. Not only did he produce the live blog coverage for the presidential and vice-presidential debates, but also for the historic election night coverage itself, where Obama was hailed as the 1st United States President of African-American descent. For the live blogging system, Shefik incorporated technologies such as PHP and MySQL, utilizing the content management system WordPress.
Due to the success of the live blogging system, Shefik produced coverage of other highly trafficked events at TIME, some of which also became cross-promotions with the editorial teams at the sister magazines People and Entertainment Weekly. This included Shefik producing TIME's live coverage of the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards, working with journalist James Poniewozik to bring up-to-the-minute commentary.
Credits
- Technical Producer: Shefik
Last Updated: January 16, 2024
