Last night's Tony Awards reminds me of an interesting question: What makes the Tonys consistently the best of the showbiz awards shows? (An opinion backed up by the fact that the annual Broadway Awards show wins so many Emmys.)

1. They focus on what people care about. They only present the 'big' awards during the actual televised program -- awards like Best Musical, Best Play, Best Actor and Actress in each of those categories, Best Revival. The rest of the awards -- such as costume design -- are presented earlier, with the winners announced during the actual show. If they went through the whole process (presenters , presenters open the envelope, announcing the winner, hearing the winner's speech) for every single award, they would be on all night -- to a continually shrinking home audience.

2. They are unique -- they offer something people don't normally get. One of live theatre's few advantages compared to movies and television is that the theatrical product is something people don't get to see every day. When most people see a musical number from, say, Book of Morman, they are seeing something new to them. That's not like the Oscars or the Emmys, where we have seen the movies or TV shows already, or where the clips are slightly longer versions of scenes we have already seen in ads.

3. The Tonys are entertaining. This is partly a natural follow-on from points 1 and 2 above. Spending less time on the secondary categories leaves more time to entertain the home audience. And because they are offering something different, it has more entertainment value.

But more than this, the Tonys make a big effort to entertain. They realize what some awards show producers don't seem to -- bore your audience for one minute and you lose them for the rest of the night.

When you add it up, the Tonys' follow the same formula that makes sense for any speech, or any effective communciations product: Focus on what people care about, offer a unique product or message, and entertain the audience.