Ahead of Thursday’s Emmy nomination vote, the Television Academy has revised its Emmy rules regarding submissions and nomination numbers. The update will significantly affect the scripted genre, which includes „Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” and „Saturday Night Live.”
New Rules and Procedures document on the Emmys website, Updated on May 22, details of the changes under the Recommendations Procedures section. Previously, categories with fewer than 20 submissions required contestants to be screened by a peer panel, with nominees requiring a minimum 90% pass. If no submissions reach this limit, the person with the most votes will be declared the winner.
The revised rules have reduced the nomination threshold from 90% to 70%, as well as reduced the number of nominees to two.
In 2023, the scripted category had 12 submissions, resulting in three nominees. This year, Variety Only four anticipated submissions are tracking: last year’s winner John Oliver, „SNL,” CBS’ „After Midnight” hosted by Taylor Tomlinson and HBO/Max’s now-cancelled „Painting with John.” Variety Netflix’s „The Magic Prank Show With Justin Willman,” which had planned its campaign in a scripted variety spot, was not accepted into the race. Instead, it will compete alongside its streaming peers “Love Is Blind” and last year’s winner “Queer Eye” for best structured reality program.
A notable issue that has been bubbling over the past few weeks is that the „scripted genre” does not have a specific peer group. Traditionally, this category is one of 17 races that are voted on by the entire membership, not a specific group. The TV Academy sent an email to members on June 5 inviting them to serve on the jury. The viewing and voting period for jurors runs from June 28 to July 8, following the nomination voting period for all other categories, which runs from June 13 to 24. The deadline for jury registration is June 21.
Members must list their involvement with the various scripted series and agree that they will watch all videos before voting.
Scripted Variety and Talk Series Genres Face Significant Challenges Last year’s talk series race, which had 19 submissions, is expected to have only 13 this year. It would be remarkably short, offering only three candidates with names like Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, John Mulaney and Stephen Colbert.
Other language updates in the rules were found under the Sound Mixing and Special Visual Effects awards. The former states that „regardless of past rulings, there is no guarantee that all listed entrants will be approved by the governing body of the peer group.”
The latter is found in the „Voting” section, „A panel consisting of voting members from the Special Visual Effects Peer Panel will pre-screen all submissions to determine nominations.”
Official submissions will be released when voting opens on Thursday, June 13.