The Emmys Eliminate Program Time for Comedy & Drama Categorization
The Television Academy has announced more rules changes for the 74th Emmy Awards competition.
The length of an episode will no longer dictate submission categories for a comedy or drama TV series. (Prior to this, 30-minute programs were comedies, while hour-long were dramas.) Rather, producers will now determine the category submission, though the Television Academy’s Industry Panel will have the right to review that preference.
Now, comedies and dramas are defined as “programs with multiple episodes (minimum of six) in which the content is primarily comedic for comedy series entries or primarily dramatic for dramatic series entries. In addition, the ongoing theme, storyline and main characters are presented under the same title and have continuity of production supervision.” Any program that comes in under 20 minutes must be submitted in the short-form categories.
As was previously announced, any film on the viewing platform for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is considered a theatrical motion picture and is therefore ineligible for the Emmys. The Academy also announced changes for stunts (split into two, one for Comedy Series or Variety Program, and one for Drama Series, Limited or Anthology Series, or Movie) and voice-over (performers who voice multiple characters can submit each as a separate entry). Entry eligibility has also been expanded for various professionals working on reality programming, animation and special visual effects.
“This year our Awards Committee has worked with industry colleagues to further define program eligibility for the Emmy competition,” Frank Scherma, Chairman and CEO for the Television Academy, said in a statement. “We’ve made great strides in differentiating what is eligible for our respective competitions, in concert with ongoing changes in content development and distribution.”
