Although the trophy itself is but a symbol for the prestige of the award, the statuette certainly provides a covetable physical artifact for those in the television industry. While you may not be interested in actually watching the broadcast tonight, you might appreciate the craft that goes into making the trophies everyone seems to gush over for a few days each year. After seeing the handiwork that goes into them, you might find yourself gushing, too.

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Maybe it's the exclusivity that comes with winning one of the golden gals, but I've always had this image that includes a super secret lab and the rarest of materials when it comes to the trophies. So it's refreshing to see the number of people involved in the process. While only one person gets to take home the statuette for good, there sure are a lot of hands that are put to work on each trophy, from ladling molten metal into the molds to final assembly and quality assurance.

The keepsakes hail from makers of the great Midwest—specifically, Chicago firm R.S. Owens. Unfortunately, embedding is disabled for the 3-minute behind-the-scenes bit, so you're going to have to check it out on YouTube to see how it's done. I promise, it's worth it.

My favorite part may be the juxtaposition of the gleaming gold of the finished products to the tried and true tools that keep the trophies in stock, year after year. No spoilers, though: Apparently they engrave custom plates for every nominee in order to maintain strict confidentiality.

Via Laughing Squid