2023 Emmy Rule Changes Restructure Award Categories

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) recently unveiled rule changes for the 2023 Emmy Awards, including restructuring the variety categories. Many expect the alterations will likely pit long-time winners against each other such as Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and Saturday Night Live (SNL).

The replacement of the variety talk and variety sketch awards with two new categories—outstanding talk series and outstanding scripted variety series—will bring about this unexpected competition. Some shows' eligibility will be affected by the new categories, notably Last Week Tonight, which seems to be eligible in the written variety series alongside SNL. In previous years, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Daily Show, and The Late Show competed with Oliver's program for viewers' attention. In contrast, there haven't been many nominees in the sketch category; just SNL and A Black Lady Sketch Show were recognized last year. The Problem by Jon Stewart and My Next Guest Needs No Introduction by David Letterman will probably qualify under the talk category.

The ATAS also changed the number of choices voters can make in the first round, combined the tracked categories (cinematography and single-camera and multicamera editing) into one category each (though they can still be split if there are 20 or more nominees in each track), and added the previously mentioned new game show categories.

The two new variety categories, as described by ATAS, are as follows:

• Outstanding Talk Series:

  • Programs where a significant portion of the running time consists of unscripted interviews or panel discussions between a host/hosts and guest celebrities or personalities. A Talk Series can include scripted elements and other aspects of a variety series such as monologues, musical performances, etc., so long as the main intent of the program is interviews/discussions.

• Outstanding Scripted Variety Series:

  • Programs that are primarily scripted or feature loosely scripted improv and consist of discrete scenes, musical numbers, monologues, comedy stand-ups, sketches, etc. Scripted Variety Series may occasionally feature unscripted elements, but the main intent of the series is scripted or performed entertainment.

According to several experts, ATAS likely intended to resolve two debates by establishing these new categories. How to deal with the reduction of sketch shows (which have become so small that they can no longer support a distinct Emmy category), and how to distinguish between variety talkers and topical and news-focused talk shows. Until 2015, the categories for variety talk and variety sketch series merged. With series like Drunk History and Key & Peele, the number of sketch shows increased at the same time as that choice. That was short-lived, though, as the variety talk and variety sketch areas were negatively impacted by rules put in place in 2019 that determined the number of nominees in each category.

Whether or not these will resolve the debate or cause new problems is unclear until new developments are discovered.