Emmy's New Rulings Are Game-Changers
Friday, February 20, 2015 at 5:00PM After years of gripes about tv shows "gaming" the system to get more nominations - like Downton Abbey pretending it was a miniseries before it was a series and True Detective pretending it was a regular series instead of a miniseries or Joan Cusack pretending she was a "guest" on Shameless for years on while starring in every episode - suddenly things have changed. Next year's Emmy races in both Drama and Comedy will be forced to look very different. And I'm not just talking about Breaking Bad finally being out of the way (thank God!)
The big changes and the one show most affected after the jump...
- there will now be seven slots for both Drama Series and Comedy Series due to the rapidly expanding television medium (it's true that way more shows are produced now than ever before)
- all half hour shows will be deemed comedy; all hour long shows will be deemed drama
- "guest actor" contenders may not appear in more than 50% of episodes
- "Mini Series" is now "Limited Series" and must be stand-alone narratives without recurring characters*
The half hour versus hour rule change will upset people but, as Joe said, it's "satisfyingly concrete."
The show that will be reeling the most from this decision is Orange is the New Black. Since it competed in comedy for Season 1 and hogged the Guest Actress category with its regular supporting cast (including guest actress winner Uzo Aduba as "Crazy Eyes" who is in most of the episodes), it won't be eligible for any of the same nominations and not even some of the same correlative nominations in drama for Season 2!**
The 67th Emmy Awards will be held on Sunday September 20th 2015 on Fox. Nominations will be announced on July 16th.
* This decision is also smart but not without loopholes. What will they do with American Horror Story for example. It always competes in Miniseries and even though the characters change, the actors stay the same and this past season they've taken great pains to tie it to the other seasons in terms of at least two characters (Pepper) so technically, where will it qualify?
** It's increasingly difficult to remember this but due to Emmy timetables which run June 1st to May 31st, next time around they'll be honoring Orange is the New Black's second season (the one with Lorraine Toussaint as Vi who will have to compete in supporting and not "guest" which I'm reasonably certain they were going to try for given that it's easier to win) which will feel like it was released forever ago, instead of Season 3 which everyone will have binge-watched just a month before the nominations)
Reader Comments (30)
The guest category thing is a god send as it had gotten horribly ridiculous, but I still think they'll find people (like, say, Diana Rigg) where it feels a bit like a cheat.
Not to nitpick, by the way, but Denis O'Hare, James Cromwell, and Zachary Quinto have all been nominated for AHS at the Emmys, and Cromwell actually won.
Are there no 30-minute dramas or hour-long comedies out there? I'd never thought of it in those terms.
Half-hour dramas pretty much don't exist (In Treatment is the only recent example I can think of). Hour-long comedies are only slightly more prevalent, and they also tend to fall into the "dramedy" classification (e.g., Glee, Gilmore Girls, Jane the Virgin).
One should note that these are just the default rules. You're still allowed to petition for an exemption -- which I'm sure Jane the Virgin will do, for instance, since it makes way more sense to put that among the comedies. Not that it's a likely nominee, despite its quality, because it's on the CW.
I think this is great, especially the guest actor category. Joe Morton is another one who will be out of luck.
Defining comedy as half-hours and dramas as hours may be concrete but it's SO square.
Could they/will they just call it Best Hour Series and Best Half Hour Series? I don't like it but that's what they are doing in practical terms.
I'm pretty on-board with all these changes, and it's good to see them correct three actual problems - not sure they need more series nominees, though. Six is enough, and if you're making room due to the number of shows, the acting nominations should go up too, since there are more people starring in all the shows, and the directing/writing nominations should go up, since there are more episodes of all the shows... Stick with 6; it's good. Or go back down to 5, it's better.
(Also want to note that they didn't wade into the lead/supporting question, unfortunately. Would've been a good time.)
The rule change of comedy being 30 minutes is quite idiotic and basically will give MF a sixth series win in comedy which will just make me sick to no end.
This is a big diversity year on TV, too. It will be interesting to see how that's reflected in the nominations. Will the TV Academy send a message that they are more hip with the times than the film academy? I hope so.
I really didn't think having 7 nominees instead of 6 was a priority.
They are going to need a bigger auditorium.
It's such an unwieldy show that it defies any attempts to fix it.
If they're going to say that all 30-minute shows are comedies and all 60-minute shows are dramas, why not just switch the names of the categories to Outstanding Series (60 Minutes) and Outstanding Series (30 Minutes)? I guess it's just because those don't sound as official, but that's really what the categories are now. It also brings up the question of whether or not 30-minute series will be able to use hour-long specials (which a lot of them sometimes have) as their submission episodes. I would assume not, but does that mean they could theoretically submit that episode as a drama and the others as comedies?
As far as increasing the number of nominees to seven, why not just do what the Oscars do and make it so that there are five guaranteed nominees plus any additional nominees that receive a certain amount of votes? In the 30-minute (ahem, comedy) category in particular, I can't help but feel there's going to be a lot of filler from now on. More so than usual, that is. And they probably still won't nominate the shows people want to see nominated.
All that being said, I do like a certain amount of concreteness in the rules, and I sort of wish the Oscars would make some changes as far as that's concerned. Namely, I would really like to see the Oscars implement a rule whereby actors are categorized into lead or supporting based on being above or below a certain percentage of the movie's total screen time. I guess you could just make it 50%, which would still cause for some debate as to whether or not certain roles are *really* lead or supporting, but I think it would at least prevent the really blatant cases of so-called category fraud from occurring.
I only like the idea of having seven nominees in the supporting categories.
One of the changes that you skipped but I think is worth noting is that all voters eligible to vote in a category at the nomination stage are now also eligible to vote for the winner as well. Previously, for example, an actor member would be able to nominate in the acting categories; however, they would be asked to vote in only a few at the final stage and only one per genre classification (e.g., Lead Actor Drama, Guest Actor Comedy, and Supporting Actress Miniseries). What this meant was that each category had its own unique segment of the academy determining its outcome. People like to point to the tape submissions as the reason why the Emmys were so unpredictable, but the fact that year to year (and within the same year) the actual voting body was quite different helps to explain some erratic/bizarre decisions.
Now that all can vote in all categories at the end, I do think general "buzz" will matter more and some of those eccentricities are going to go away. I think it's nuts that there is more than 2 months between the nominations announcement and the ceremony, though I understand that the longer time period will allow for more submissions in more categories to potentially be viewed. However, we know that many will want to vote in categories despite the basically impossible task of watching all submissions, which means that episode submission choice will ultimately matter less. I don't think we get any Merritt Wever-level shockers under the new system.
I initially thought there was going to be a change in the timetable so the summer counts and OITNB wouldn't be so off the map and behind in terms of Emmy consideration.
I personally hate the new rules of drama v comedy. Sure, there aren't like any half hour dramas, but there are certainly hour long comedies. Of course, they're dramadies, as someone else mentioned, but something like Orange is the New Black is still overall comedic in its execution (although the second season was pretty damn dark... much more dramatic than season 1). I just find this new rule awkward.
Seven nominees is too many. I think six was perfect.
LOVE the other two rule changes, though. Too many people were abusing the system with those categories if we're being honest.
Did my other comment get eaten? -___-
Well, assuming it eventually posts, I was going to add: "with all that said, Lorraine Toussaint better still win the damn Emmy."
Philip H: Well, there is anything animated that doesn't primarily shoot for comedy. Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra. The DCAU. A substantial amount of anime, particularly including Evangelion, Death Note and Madoka Magica. All quality dramas, all 1/2 hour format.
To echo Sean above, producers can still petition to move categories for their series, but need 2/3 of a special panel to agree. So series like Jane the Virgin will definitely pass, Shameless will definitely not, and Orange may or may not. I like this rule, mostly to eliminate cases like Shameless.
These changes will hurt any half hour drama and hour long comedy series.
Is Glee a comedy or a drama?
And Ugly Betty was definitely an hour long comedy.
the 30-min rule is the dumbest thing the Emmys have done. So Glee, Ugly Betty, Orange Is the New Black, are dramas like Breaking Bad and The Sopranos? Girls and Nurse Jackie are laugh-out riots b/c they're 30 minutes or less! Thanks for the genre lessons, Emmys! True Detective was never a Drama Series if Fargo wasn't. They make themselves more and more irrelevant with each passing year.
Girls and Nurse Jackie competed as comedies before this rule change, happily collecting 34 Emmy nominations and six wins between them.
XY -- actually i think this makes them more relevant. They have eliminated much of the gaming and the "is this a drama?" or "is this a comedy?" question was always there and still will be only shows won't be able to switch it up to wherever they feel they might win.
They should make like this: Best Miniseries or Anthology Series. Anthology Series are not regular series, you don-t have the same characters and arcs, you don't follow Jessica Lange the same way you follow Jon Hamm, because Lange always plays a different person and Hamm always plays Don Draper.
Thank god for these changes.
Remember, everyone: "Producers may formally petition a new Academy industry panel to consider their series' eligibility in the alternative category."
This means that Jane the Virgin, a wonderful one hour show that is more or less pure comedy, will likely petition to get its star Jane Rodriguez nominated in the comedy category. I'm sure it will be successful. This show has a few serious moments, but not as many as other hour long shows.
I love these formal rules, as well as the room for flexibility on a case by case basis.
Genre distinctions are somewhat irrelevant, but let's face it. Orange is the New Black is not a comedy. Like The Sopranos and Mad Men before it, it has laugh out loud moments but ultimately is an incredibly sad and at times dark and depressing show. It was stealing the awards from pure comedy shows like Veep and everyone knows it. Maybe they will try to petition this one to be nominated in comedy, but unlike Jane, I doubt they will be successful.
Half hour shows like Louie, Derek, and Girls are more serious in my view, but they've always been nominated in the comedy awards anyway, so the new rule doesn't really impact their chances.
I agree that we should just have a 'Best Half-Hour' and 'Best Hour' category, but since when did awards shows become logical?
Girls and Nurse Jackie may have been nominated in the Comedy categories - but they were definitely NOT comedies.
Up there with the Golden Globes claiming Driving Miss Daisy, The Tourist and Big Eyes being comedies.
Cal - from my understand AHS will still be able to compete there... i doubt they'll be a stickler for it having 2 minor characters that reappear in different seasons.
Everyone -- here we go again. why is everyone so resistant to calling things like GIRLS and ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK comedies. It's like when people get upset about BIRDMAN being called a comedy. It *IS* a comedy. Yes it has a dramatic undertow but it's essentially comic in nature. I'd argue that Girls is most definitely a comedy... though I can see why people dont know what to do with OITNB
the only half hour show that is more of a drama than a comedy that I can think of is LOOKING and *maybe* NURSE JACKIE -- it definitely trended more drama as time went on (like Shameless) but maybe there are others? But other half hour shows with dramatic beats like TOGETHERNESS and GETTING ON. Those are definitely comedies no matter how sad they are.
No it doesn't make them more relevant. Screentime has never and will never determine genre placement. There will be a special panel convened to determine what is and isn't a comedy. That is how Orange Is the New Black and Jane the Virgin will have to get their proper placement in COMEDY. And Girls and Nurse Jackie will stay right where they currently are. If anything should be making the leap to DRAMA based on content alone, it's those shows. They'd be laughed out the room going up against Breaking Bad and House of Cards, but still. Imperfect answers to imperfect questions. The Emmys are still irrelevant.
XY what awards body is relevant? What does relevancy have to do with awards bodies? People who are relevant to you very likely care what established awards bodies who you insist are irrelevant as relevant.
^^^ Not gonna even try to decipher that gibberish shit you just posted.
This just reminds me that I have been watching "Ally McBeal" on Netflix and I am fascinated by how unabashedly weird that show was.