Leave it to the Television Academy to make major rule changes just two weeks before voting for the 2020 Emmys is scheduled to begin. The big news out of the new guidance is that both the Original Comedy Series and Original Drama Series will have eight nominees each this year. In 2019, under previous Emmy rules, only the Drama Series category qualified for that large a field.
According to the organization, the fact submissions were up 15% over the previous competition year led to the change.
In a statement, Television Academy Chairman and CEO Frank Scherma remarked, “The increase in submissions is a reflection of the number of new voices, new television platforms and a tremendous growth in content from existing platforms across our industry. Despite production suspension resulting from COVID-19, there is a wealth of excellent work submitted for this year’s competition.”
The number of nominations in a category will now be determined using the
following criteria:
1-19 submissions: A sliding scale between zero to 4 nominations
20-80 submissions: 5 nominations
81-160 submissions: 6 nominations
61-240 submissions: 7 nominations
More than 240 submissions: 8 nominations
Again, Comedy and Drama Series categories will have eight nominations each, regardless of the number of submissions received. Paired performer categories (i.e., supporting actor comedy and supporting actress comedy) will have parity in the number of nominations. This new rule also eliminates the previous 2% rule, which specified that in categories with five nominees, if the fifth and sixth top vote-getters were within 2% each other, both would be nominated.
It’s still unclear if competitive categories such as Limited Series, Competitive Reality Series, Structured Reality Series or Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Series will qualify for the six or seven nominations designation. A representative for The Television Academy told The Playlist tonight “The entries are still being vetted, so the total number of entries per category won’t be confirmed until ballots post/voting starts on July 2.”
For a wide-open Comedy Series race, this is a big boost to series such as “Ramy,” “The Great,” “Insecure” and “Dave,” among others. On the Drama Series side, it might give some breathing room to “Pose,” “The Morning Show” and “Stranger Things” who are among 10 shows now battling it out for four slots.
Emmy nomination voting begins on July 2 and ends on July 13. Nominations will be announced on July 28.