Conventional wisdom favors outgoing comedy winner “Ted Lasso” and 2020 drama winner “Succession” as the big winners of this year’s Emmys. And that could very well be the case on September 12.
But the Television Academy is changing — and so is the way its members vote. We used to assume they liked to reward the same old, same old, every year. And we used to add the caveat that voters were older and presumably more drawn to safe and predictable choice.
But this thinking is outdated. As of 2020, the Academy vets its members, ensuring they meet their peer group’s active membership requirements — which typically include current or recent work experience in their field — in order to qualify to vote for the Emmys. (Anyone who hasn’t had multiple credits in the last few years, or a legacy of work, becomes an associate non-voting member.)
According to TV Academy President and COO Maury McIntyre, this first phase of verification is nearly complete. Membership has dwindled in recent years due to work stoppages related to COVID-19, but the organization is rebuilding its membership. McIntyre says he had 17,000 voting members this year, “so we’re seeing steady growth after the 2020 decline.”
The TV Academy also recently hired marketing veterinarian Linda Swain as vice president of membership and outreach, a new position designed to strengthen its ranks, particularly with respect to diversity, equity and inclusion.
I have to admit that all of this makes me a little excited. Could we have some fun and unexpected winners on September 12? I really hope members decide to spread the wealth and not just vote for a direct ticket. “Ted Lasso” and “Severance” are indeed fantastic, but so are some of this year’s other breakouts.
What if “Abbott Elementary” won Outstanding Comedy? This is a show that I even see streamer executives secretly scavenging for – broadcast comedy that resonates on all the right levels.
What if “Squid Game” won Best Drama, giving the Emmys their first-ever non-English win and signaling a sea change in the globalization of television?
But again, who knows? Last year I was starting to really convince myself that in the variety sketch race, which had only two nominees, voters would rather make history with “A Black Lady Sketch Show” than “Saturday Night Live.” . They did not do it. (“SNL,” the most award-winning program in Emmy history, is a beast to beat.)
Still, the unpredictability is what will be exciting about this year’s Emmys telecast, along with the fact that it’s the closest ceremony to “normal” since pre-pandemic times. And that includes being back in the Microsoft Theater, with an audience, for the first time since 2019.
“I guess the real question is, what do we consider normal these days?” TV Academy President and CEO Frank Scherma told me this recently. “If we say, are we getting closer to what we used to do? Or is this kind of the new normal? From everything I’ve read, it looks like this is going to be a new normal for a long time. I’m excited that we’re going to have a bunch of people in the audience and we’re going to have nominees there, and we’re going to have a party again. To me, that seems normal.