75th Emmy Awards Move to January Amid Film Awards and Different Eligibility Windows

The Television Academy and FOX network announced on Thursday that the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, originally scheduled for September 18, 2023, will now air on Monday, January 15, 2024, just one week after the Golden Globes, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The move marks the first time the Emmys have postponed their air date since 2001, when the telecast made the choice to move in the wake of both the 9/11 terrorist attacks and U.S. military action in Afghanistan.

With the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes ongoing (WGA just crossed 100 days this week) and no real end in sight, the Television Academy and FOX had been internally debating on where to move the Emmys with the Academy hoping for November, ahead of the film awards season that kicks off two months later, and the network wanting January. In the end, FOX prevailed but it won’t be without complications, a glut of awards shows and wildly different eligibility windows. This year’s nominations were announced on July 12, less than 48 hours before the SAG-AFTRA strike began, where Succession, The White Lotus, The Last of Us and Ted Lasso lead.

The Emmys still utilize a June 1 – May 31 calendar, adopted long before the advent of streamers and year-round programming, when summer was for primarily for reruns. But for decades now, non-network television shows have kicked off over summer, putting them in the next round for Emmys but in the calendar year window for the The Globes, Critics’ Choice Awards (airing on January 14) and SAG Awards (airing live February 24 for the first time on Netflix), which celebrate film and television at the same time, use January 1 – December 31. For example, it’s very likely that The Golden Globes, while they still don’t have a network to air their show, could award Jeremy Allen White for the second season of The Bear, which premiered in June, while the Emmys one week later will award him for season one. The third season of Only Murders in the Building will also be vying for awards from the Globes, SAG and Critics’ Choice as the second season is nominated at this season’s Emmys, which, for a casual viewer as opposed to those who cover awards shows, might be confusing wondering why Meryl Streep isn’t Emmy-nominated but will probably be elsewhere.

Complicating things even more, the January 15 date for the Emmys means the Creative Arts Awards, always held the weekend prior to the main show, will be January 6 and 7…the latter being the same day as the Globes. That said, the Creative Arts Awards generally celebrate scripted programming on night one and unscripted on night two, an area the Globes don’t cover. FXX is still set to air an edited version of the two Creative Arts Emmys on Saturday, January 13, 2024, at 8pm ET.

Last month, the TV Academy previously announced that it wouldn’t change the Phase 2 voting calendar for the 75th Emmys, which will still take place between August 17 and August 28.

The Creative Arts Emmys and Primetime Emmy Awards will both take place at the Peacock Theater at LA Live in Los Angeles and will be executive-produced by Jesse Collins, Dionne Harmon and Jeannae Rouzan-Clay of Jesse Collins Entertainment.