The biggest rule change at this year’s Emmys can’t even be found in the 78-page book “Primetime Emmy Awards Rules & Procedures 2022-2023.” But when the nominations are announced on June 12, that change could make Emmy voters seem a lot more open and a lot less lazy than they have in recent years.
Or I couldn’t do anything at all.
The two-sentence-long new rule was included in a press release several months ago announcing changes for the 75th Emmy: “The number of selections each eligible voting member can make per category in voting for First round will now be capped at the number of nominations specified for that category. Members will no longer be able to vote for an unlimited number of selections in any category.”
Readers of this space can understand why I think change is so important. At the end of the 2022 Emmy season, I wrote a column noting the trend of fewer and fewer shows getting more and more acting nominations, which hit a pitiful peak last year when “Succession” garnered a record 14 nominations. for acting while “The White Lotus” and “Dopesick” earned 13 of 14 nominations in the limited series supporting actor and actress categories.
(Poor Sebastian Stan from “Pam & Tommy” was left as the sole representative of the 107 other shows that were eligible in the categories, 106 of which were excluded entirely.)
For years I blamed the growing lack of variety on voters being lazy to look beyond a handful of favorite shows, but it became clear last year that the problem may well have been that the Academy’s rules made them seem more lazy what they really could be. Those rules asked voters to examine ballots with hundreds of contenders and then gave them this instruction: “Vote for All entries in this category that you…feel you are worthy of a nomination.” (My bold.)
In other words, voters could, and apparently did, vote for all of “Succession,” all of “The White Lotus,” all of “Dopesick,” all of their favorite shows without a second thought. That rule, I wrote at the time, “is guaranteed to overload the nominee list with contenders from shows everyone has seen.”
But now, after six years of increasing concentration between fewer shows in the acting categories, that rule is gone. Now, if you’re voting in a category that will have five nominees, you can only vote for five contenders; if you’re going to have eight, you can vote for eight.
The hope, no doubt, is that voters with a limited number of places to fill on their ballots will become more thoughtful about who they choose to fill those places. Sure, you can use all your slots for the “Succession” actors if you want, but common sense suggests you might want to spread out the voting a bit, to pick one or two actors you really love from your favorite show while still leaving room. for some worthy candidates from other programs.
The new rules have given members of the Television Academy, particularly those in the performer pool, the opportunity to show that they can cast a wider net and not just allow a few shows to engage in domination. of the nominations.
There’s no doubt that some shows could still rack up big numbers and put multiple nominees in one category: “Succession” in actor, supporting actor and both guest categories, “Abbott Elementary” in the comedy supporting categories, “Saturday Night Live “. ” in supporting and guest, “The Last of Us” in both guest drama categories, “Beef” in supporting comedy.
But the prospect of one of the two shows dominating the categories seems less than usual just based on the year on TV, and when you add a new rule that can make sweeps more difficult, things seem to be looking up.
We could be on the brink of welcome change or, I suppose, bitter disappointment.
