Emmys, You Got Sass

So yesterday The Television Academy pulled out a stunner – and changed some of their eligibility rules – and I must say, A for effort.

Let’s just get right to them….

1. The Changes to what Defines A “Guest Actor”:  Only performers appearing in less than 50% of a program’s episodes are now eligible to submit in the “Guest Actor” category.  Kudos! This one they got spot on! I’m’ sorry Uzo I love you, but your name is in the damn credits! Guest Star, you are not!

2.  Splitting of the Variety Categories: The Variety Series category is now split – Outstanding Variety Talk, to be awarded during the Primetime Emmy telecast, and Outstanding Variety Sketch, to be included in the Creative Arts Emmy program. Again! Well done. There should be a distinct difference between the two. HOWEVER! The fact that they are sticking the Variety Sketch category in the Creative Arts show (the one held a week before, and not televised) pisses me off, but I’ll digress. The Academy are trying, so let’s not get into that.

3. Mini-Series Rules, and Name Change: “Mini-Series” will be changed to “Limited Series” and defined as programs of two or more episodes with a total running time of at least 150 program minutes that tell a complete, non-recurring story, and do not have an ongoing storyline and/or main characters in subsequent seasons. “Comedy” and “Drama” Series will continue to be defined as programs with a minimum of six episodes which have an ongoing storyline, theme and main characters presented under the same title and with continuity of production supervision. Yeah, I know a but convoluted but the gist of it is that all shows that have the same cast,  story line will be considered a series (comedy or drama), and any shows that have revolving casts, story lines will be considered a mini series   Limited Series. So True Detective, Fargo, and AHS will be in the same category from now on. This one I’m a bit on the fence about. I feel that a Limited Series should be a show that is only on once – such as Broadchurch, not something that comes back year in and year out with a new cast. A little niggle, but what can you do? I’ll live with it.

4.Expansion of Final Round Voting: In an effort to increase member participation in the voting process, and to take advantage of the Academy’s extension of online voting to both rounds, all voters eligible to vote in a category’s nominating round are now eligible to vote in that category’s final round, so long as they meet two additional requirements: much like the former Blue Ribbon panel process, voters must watch the required submitted material online and attest to no specific conflicts of interest with the nominees. Whew, another convoluted one but again, the gist of it is that people who are eligible to vote for the nomination rounds are now eligible to vote for the final round – to pick the winners. And why shouldn’t they be? I can’t honestly say I understand why/how this worked before because I’m not an Academy member or have access to that info – but the more voters the better, I feel. And let’s all just laugh off the line of “voters must watch the required submitted material online ” because we all know that NEVER happens – otherwise there would have been better choices in nominations long ago!

5. The Upping of Comedy/Drama Shows Nominees: Due to the dramatic increase in series production, the number of nominees for “Comedy” and “Drama” series has been increased from six to seven. We’re going from six to seven. WOW! What a ground breaking choice that was. Sorry, but this isn’t enough. The Oscars had a similar issue years ago with Best Picture, and they upped the category to ten nomination, so come on Emmys, get it together.

And finally, the big one. The one that has been my bone of contention for years now. The one I ranted about just several months ago in a previous post…………

6.  What Defines A Comedy, and A Drama: To clarify the difference between the “Comedy” and “Drama” series categories, series with episodes of 30 minutes or less are defined as a “Comedy”; those with episodes of more than 30 minutes are presumed to be a “Drama.”  Am I happy? Slightly, yes. Is this a perfect solution? Absolutely not. I understand that we need a benchmark for shows, but this isn’t ideal. Where does Jane The Virgin (this year’s GG winner for Best Comedic Actress) go? In Drama, because it’s an hour long. Where does Transparent (This years GG Winner for Best Comedy Series and Actor) go? Comedy, because it’s thirty minutes long. Both of these are wrong (Sorry Globes, Transparent is not a fucking comedy). Now, it should be pointed out that in both this instance, and the Series/Limited Series categories, Producers can petition to have their shows be put in the other categories – but the panel makes the final decision. This all seems so damn ridiculous for something that should be so glaringly obvious. If you laugh at a show – it’s a comedy. If you don’t – it’s a drama (Or just The Big Bang Theory). How is it not that easy? How have we come to a point where running time is now defining the show categories??? Come on Hollywood you’re not THIS stupid. You know where shows should go, so just uphold it. Don’t cave when OITNB wants to change categories cuz it doesn’t stand a chance against *Insert random drama name here*. Stop playing buddy, buddy and do your jobs – or I’ll be hence forth be calling myself The Television Academy!

All in all though, I respect that The Academy has made an effort. I’m actually shocked that they did, so all I can say is – it’s progress, and in the right direction.

Will any of this make a massive difference come July 16th? Only time will tell, but something’s got to give somewhere. Either way, I will be full of opinions, and possibly rage.