Television Academy announces new Emmy rules, eliminates Drama and Comedy runtime length requirement

The Television Academy today announced rules changes for the 74th Emmy Awards, including eliminating the program time length for comedy and drama series, a rule that’s been a long time coming with streaming program times often not in line with traditional network constraints.

For Comedy or Drama Series now, producers will determine category placement, with the stipulation that the Television Academy reserves the right to have the Academy’s Industry Panel review category placement.

Comedy and Drama Series are defined as programs with multiple episodes (minimum of six), where the majority of the running time of at least six episodes are primarily comedic for comedy series entries, or primarily dramatic for dramatic series entries, in which the ongoing theme, storyline and main characters are presented under the same title and have continuity of production supervision. All series episodes must have a running time of more than 20 minutes.

“This year our Awards Committee has worked with industry colleagues to further define program eligibility for the Emmy competition,” said TV Academy chairman/CEO Frank Scherma. “We’ve made great strides in differentiating what is eligible for our respective competitions, in concert with ongoing changes in content development and distribution.”

The Television Academy also announced changes in the stunts and voice-over categories as well as expanded eligibility for reality programming, animation and special visual effects. Here is the full list of changes:

Stunt Coordination: Outstanding Stunt Coordination has been split back into two categories. One for Stunt Coordination for a Comedy Series or Variety Program and the other for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Drama Series, Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

Character Voice-Over: Performers who voice multiple characters within an episode or series, can submit all characters, provided that each character is submitted as a separate entry. This means performers will no longer submit one episode per series for all characters that the performer voiced in that episode.

Reality Programming: Supervising Story Producer has been added as an Emmy-eligible title in the Structured, Unstructured and Competition program categories.

Special Visual Effects: VFX Editor has been added as an Emmy-eligible title in the Special Visual Effects categories.

Animation: Voice Director has been added as an Emmy-eligible title for animated programs.

Makeup and Hairstyling for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program: The Contemporary designation has been eliminated and these awards have been changed from Area Awards to Juried Awards. (In a juried award, all entrants are screened by a jury of appropriate peer group members and one, more than one or no entry is awarded an Emmy. There are no nominations. The winner(s), if any, are announced prior to the awards presentation.)

Governors Award: The description for the Governors Award has been revised as follows: “The Board of Governors may, when warranted, recognize an individual, company, or organization that has made a profound, transformational, and long-lasting contribution to the arts and/or science of television by presenting them with the Governors Award.”

Lighting, Camera and Technical Arts: TD, Camerawork & Video Control for a Special; Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Series; Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Special. Nominations will be determined by a two-step process for the following awards: TD, Camerawork & Video Control for a Series; TD, Camerawork & Video Control for a Special; Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Series; Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Special.

TD, Camerawork & Video Control for a Special
Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Series
Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Special

An awards area is non-competitive. In the final judging round each nomination is
considered on its own terms without regard to the other nominations in the area.
Any nomination with at least 90% approval receives an Emmy. If none of the
nominations receives 90% approval, the nomination with the highest approval
receives the Emmy.

• Nominations will be determined by a two-step process for the
following awards:

TD, Camerawork & Video Control for a Series
TD, Camerawork & Video Control for a Special
Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Series
Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Special

-All submissions will be voted for online exclusively by members of LCTA peer
group during the nomination round of voting to determine the top 10 vote
getters in each category.

-The top ten vote-getters in each category will be viewed by at-home panels
made up of volunteers from the Lighting, Camera and Technical Arts peer
group who will vote to pare down the top ten vote-getters to the requisite
number of nominees. The total number of nominees will be based on the
number of submissions received in each category.

NOTE: The following video requirements will be added to accommodate the two-step
nomination process: All submissions will be required to upload a video file at time of
entry. These video clip(s) of a “continuous segment” will be accessible to only the
Review Panel:

Shows 30 minutes or less must submit (1) 6-minute continuous clip
Shows 30-60 minutes must submit (1 or 2) continuous clips totaling 12 minutes
Shows 60

Define Theatrical Motion Pictures (previously announced): Any film placed on the AMPAS viewing platform will be deemed a theatrical motion picture and thus ineligible for the Emmy competition.

Full details of all awards changes for the 74th Emmy Awards can be found at Emmys.com/rules/changes.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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