While shows such as Orange is the New Black are notably known for switching Emmy categories each year, new Television Academy rulings are designed to streamline Emmy award categories beginning this year.
The Television Academy released its formal rulings and regulations for this year’s award ceremony earlier this week.
While series have become more complex and harder to categorize, a few years back the Academy clarified that any half-hour show is a comedy and hour-longs are deemed dramas, with shows having the option to petition for a different category. With the rise of the half-hour drama and the hour-long comedy, it’s been harder for the Academy to categorize TV shows. The new rulings are designed to help streamline the nominations process and find better homes for each show.
One new rule states that a show in one category may appeal to the Academy to move it to another the following year, with the understanding that the show will be locked into that new category for the forthcoming future.
Other changes further clarify voice-over performance and narration. For example, narrators such as Jane the Virgin’s Anthony Mendez and The Goldbergs’ Patton Oswalt will be eligible in the voice-over category with animated voice-over actors, as they portray first-person characters in their narration.
Additionally, the Academy restructured its Outstanding Reality-Competition Program category to a more streamlined Outstanding Competition Program. And, eligible performers may use either legal name or pseudonym, but that name is what they must be credited as in the production.
The Academy also clarified that anthology series, such as Black Mirror, may be entered as a series or broken up as stand-alone programs, as it has done in the past years.
The 71st Emmy Awards will air September 22, 2019 on FOX.
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