Are the New Primetime Emmy Rules Enough?
The Academy Tweaks the Procedures Again to Avoid Last Year’s Problems
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences recently made public a slew of new rules involving the nomination process that will take effect for the next Primetime Emmy Awards. The most interesting changes, in my opinion, apply to six areas:
Mixed Voting
Instead of relying solely on a larger Academy-wide vote (encompassing all 12,000+ members) or solely on a much smaller blue-ribbon panel vote (encompassing a select few judges from several television fields), certain acting and series nominations will now be determined by a mixture of the two groups. The acting categories comprise actor, actress, supporting actor and actress, and guest actor and actress, while the series categories include both comedy and drama, equaling twelve categories that will have final nominations selected by mixed vote.
Last year’s Primetime Emmys worked under a then new two-stage process. A blue-ribbon panel alone determined the final five nominees in the major acting and series categories, after an Academy-wide vote first established a preliminary group of fifteen (for performance categories) or ten (for outstanding comedy or drama series categories) candidates. All categories will have only ten first-stage nominees this year. Since the latest change introduces greater diversity to the final list of nominees, it should theoretically and ideally produce a field of candidates that represents a wider spectrum of preferences, while simultaneously providing a built-in safeguard against inappropriate nominations. Anything that gives a larger number of deserving contenders the ability to win is all good.
Explanatory Essays
Television actors and producers will now have the ability to explain their submitted work in a written essay of up to 250 words.
Requiring explanatory essays seems like a productive change, as well, because it will give those involved in serial-type and less transparent programs the opportunity to make the premise of their series and/or role clearer to voters who may not be familiar with the extended and underlying storylines. This also places the onus on actors and producers to pick and choose what information they believe is most relevant to voters. In other words, if you aren’t nominated, don’t complain that the voters didn’t understand your show well enough since it’s now your responsibility to wise them up via the essay.
Guest Stars
Guest-star nominees can now appear in more than six episodes of a series, as long as they are listed in the credits as a guest star.
This change is possibly problematic because it creates the potential for one-time guest stars to find themselves competing against performers who are designated the same, but occur frequently enough in a series for viewers to perceive them as recurring performers on a par with supporting/recurring performers or even series stars. Two visible examples from the current voting year that come to mind are James Kyson Lee and Zachary Quinto, who play Ando Masahashi and Sylar, respectively, on NBC’s hit sci-fi serial Heroes. Although both are technically billed as guest stars, no knowledgeable viewer would dispute that each actor is as integral to the series’ plot and success as the regular cast members, if not more so in Quinto’s case since he portrays the arch villain of the show.
Moreover, Lee has appeared in a total of nineteen episodes, the same amount as the series regular who has appeared in the highest number, Hayden Panettiere (self-healing cheerleader Claire Bennet). In fact, until very recently, Lee had appeared in the most episodes of any performer on the show, regular or not. Something is therefore clearly amiss when such frequent and essential performers are not only relegated to nominations in the same category as performers who appear in just one or a few episodes, but are also ineligible for the supporting performer categories that seem most appropriate given their prominence and large amount of screen time.
Minimum Screen Time
To counteract the fallout from last year’s nomination of Ellen Burstyn for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie based on her performance in HBO’s Mrs. Harris, a telefilm in which she appeared for only fourteen seconds and had just two lines totaling thirty-eight words, the so-called “Ellen Burstyn Rule” requires that miniseries and movie supporting performer nominees appear onscreen for at least 5 percent of the work’s total length.
Anybody who argues against the direly needed Ellen Burstyn Rule has to be confused or unaware. This one needs no clarification or commentary other than to again wonder how in the world Burstyn—who, make no mistake, is an extremely talented thespian and an American treasure in the entertainment field—was nominated in 2006 in the first place. Any modification that will prevent such a questionable outcome from occurring again is very much welcomed.
Miniseries Criteria
In an obvious response to last year’s lead and supporting actor nominations in the Miniseries or Movie category for Thief, a canceled crime drama on basic cable’s FX network, all miniseries nominees must now have a single theme or storyline that is presented under one title and resolved within the work in a single awards year.
The stricter definition for a miniseries will certainly prevent a repeat of last year’s Thief nominations. Yet, what will happen to anthology programs—for example, TNT’s eight-episode Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King presentation—traditionally promoted as miniseries despite containing distinct episodes with different themes? Foreseeable situations such as this must be addressed for the new rule to hold water.
Public Performances
Public performances that were not produced specifically for the medium of television—for example, halftime events during sports programs, awards shows like the Oscars and Tonys, and such taped events as concerts and Broadway plays—will no longer fall into the umbrella Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series category. Instead, they will go in a separate, new, non-competitive Special Class Programming category that may have no winners or more than one. In addition, programs in the new category are not eligible for nominations in the directing, performance, and writing categories anymore.
Of all the changes, the last one is probably the one general television viewers will care about the least. My lone bone of contention is the related development that nominees in the Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series category will now be selected by an Academy-wide vote only instead of last year’s blue-ribbon panel vote only. Why not make this area—not to mention acting nominations in longer programs, namely miniseries and movies, which are currently chosen by Academy-wide vote alone—a two-stage mixture similar to the major acting and series categories? Again, diversity of opinion would likely produce a more representative field of nominees. Perhaps if a dud selection arises from this year’s new rule, next year will see the instatement of a mixed two-stage vote here, too.
Nominations for the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards will be announced Thursday, July 19, at 5:35am PT
Emmy award photo courtesy of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
