The Television Academy announced Friday rules changes affecting the categories and voting process for the Primetime Emmy Awards. Among the most dramatic adjustments are an increase of the number of nominees for the best comedy and drama series categories to seven each; the designation of 30-minute shows as comedies and 60-minute shows as dramas; and the expansion of the pools of final-round voters from small blue ribbon committees to all members of a category's peer group who attest to watching the nominated shows and don't have a conflict of interest.
The Academy also refined its rules for the miniseries categories, reclassifying them as limited series, and made adjustments to the guest-actor and variety categories.
Bruce Rosenblum, chairman and CEO of the Television Academy and president of Legendary Television and Digital Media, spoke with B&C about the changes and other issues facing the academy.
What prompted these changes?
Our organization thinks it's really necessary every handful of years to take a look at all of our rules and evaluate if they need to be modified. Our industry is certainly changing around us on a daily basis, and one of the key roles for an Academy like ours is to recognize creative excellence. We need to make sure that the process and the rules by which we recognize that excellence are fair and are in response to a changing landscape. I think our board did a terrific job of addressing a handful of issues that had some gray areas around them and making some changes to the voting procedures in the second round.
What was the process for changing the rules and who were the key players in the conversation?
We formed an industry committee that was made up of senior executives from networks and studios. That committee wrestled with the issues that you ultimately saw resolved and proposed a series of rules changes and modifications to the board. There was a healthy discussion around all of them. They were tweaked and modified as the board saw appropriate, and as recently as last night we voted and approved everything.
The new rules designate 30-minute shows as comedies and hour-long shows as dramas. If a producer wants to submit a show in an alternative category, what would they need to do to make their case?
What we have done is formalize the process for evaluating which category a show should be in. If a producer or network or studio chooses to enter a 60-minute series as a comedy or a 30-minute series as a drama, they'll identify that on the application. We will identify a nine-member industry panel. The industry panel will be made up of five executives that the chair of the Academy appoints and four members that the board of governors appoints. The panel will be asked to watch the programming and evaluate if the show is predominately a comedy or predominately a drama, and if at least six of the nine members of the committee determine that, yes, this 60-minute show is a comedy or, yes, this 30-minute show is a drama, that program will then be eligible in that category. It's a fairly straightforward process.
Will hour-long shows that had previously competed as comedies be grandfathered in?
No.
So it's a clean slate?
Correct.
There's been a large number of hour-long shows that competed in the comedy categories in recent years. What kind of feedback have you received from people in the community thus far to these changes?
I wouldn't characterize it is a large number. It's a handful over the past decade or so. There were a lot of industry executives involved in the design of this, as well as the 50-plus members of our board of governors. The feedback I've had today is, Thank you for the clarification. Thank you for a structure that does not automatically limit a 60-minute show from being considered a comedy and vice versa. We look forward to seeing how the process works.
Seth Meyers, during his monologue hosting last year's ceremony, said, We have dramas that will make you laugh and comedies that will make you cry because they were dramas submitted as comedies. He was giving voice to something that had been talked about a lot leading up to the show. How much was the conversation that led to these changes prompted by that discussion?
We were aware of that discussion. However, this has been an issue for more than just the past year. I believe [hourlong] Ally McBeal was in the comedy category more than 15 years ago. And it comes up every now and then. I believe our board handled this in a very prudent way.
With the expansion of the number of nominees in the series categories, were you concerned at all about diluting the value of a nomination?
It's certainly a consideration. However, if you look at sheer number of original scripted series being produced by our members today as opposed to five or 10 years ago, there has been a meaningful increase. Our role is to recognize creative achievement. We felt it was absolutely important to expand the number of nominees, given how high the quality of our membership's work is and how great the quantity is as well.
There weren't a lot of people complaining about the voting process. There were people complaining about the number of nominees and what they perceived to be shows competing in the wrong categories.
The irony is that the change in the voting process is probably the most meaningful rules change that has been made and the one that has received the least amount of attention.
What will the effect of that change be?
We should see a significant increase in the number of members participating in the voting during the final round. The prior process of blue-ribbon panels in many ways limited the number of people who participated. Having invested a lot of money in our online voting system, we are now in a place where we can take advantage of technology, al
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
The Television Academy announced Friday rules changes affecting the categories and voting process for the Primetime Emmy Awards. Among the most dramatic adjustments are an increase of the number of nominees for the best comedy and drama series categories to seven each; the designation of 30-minute shows as comedies and 60-minute shows as dramas; and the expansion of the pools of final-round voters from small blue ribbon committees to all members of a category's peer group who attest to watching the nominated shows and don't have a conflict of interest.
