And the Emmy goes to ... E & Y at the Emmys.

• Position: News & Trends

IF YOU SEE A TUXEDOED figure handcuffed to a briefcase at the next Emmy Awards, it's no James Bond impersonator--it's a CPA.

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For the past 18 years, Ernst & Young has tabulated the votes that determine who will take home the awards.

"Projects like this really underscore the integrity and confidentiality that are the foundation of our profession," says Andy Sale, CPA, a Los Angeles-based partner at Ernst & Young who leads its Media and Entertainment Division for the Pacific Southwest sector area.

The process of tabulating Emmy votes begins months before the big show. "We tabulate the nominations," says Sale, who became involved in the Emmy count in 2001. "We handle the process from beginning to end."

Sale, along with two others at Ernst & Young, tabulate the votes in a variety of proprietary methods. "We combine the use of technology, and we also use good old-fashioned hand counting, so that everything is triple checked," he says.

Secrecy surrounds the vote tabulation process. "Myself and two other Ernst & Young colleagues are the only ones who know the final results. Nobody knows anything about the process--or certainly anything about the results--until we physically hand deliver the envelopes onstage," he says. "From the point of listing the eligible nominees to the actual physical hand-delivery of the...