Damned if you do, damned if you don’t: Last year, the Academy of Television received a heartbreak from network rivals for scoring total Emmy nominations — and in some cases, bundled outlets like HBO and HBO Max. So this year they decided to drop it all together and let the networks do the math themselves.
In a brief interview about the AM Emmy nomination, Television Academy President/COO Murray McIntyre explained why. As confirmed by diverseThe ongoing campaign to increase the number of candidates in the main categories to 10 is definitely still under consideration in the institution, given the huge number of applications submitted these days. He gave an update on the status of this year’s Emmy television broadcast on NBC, which does not have an announced host yet.
Variety: Frank Sherma mentioned in a world of 600 script that there would be plenty of “snubs” too, and we definitely saw that today.
McIntyre: There’s a lot of great work on TV and we obviously only realize part of that. I think we admit that. It was so much fun. Obviously, one of the big news is that we saw a bit of a dip in the number of applications in the last year because of the pandemic and that it all came back up. So production is back, no doubt. But I think you’ve seen because of all this pandemic, it’s an interesting year. None of the nominees for last year’s drama series were nominated this year. Now, many of them couldn’t, but I can’t remember a time when that happened before. It’s not necessarily new, but of course, many had to take a break last year. They all come back. And so I think this year, when you look at the nominees, it’s a really good mix of new nominees, coming back nominees from previous years and then some nominees from last year as well. There is so much to choose from, and I think it’s nice to see this mixing in such a balance.
I have been pushing to expand to 10 candidates in some categories. Will we see that someday? Doesn’t it make sense to go to 10 so nice, like what the Motion Picture Academy does?
We’re totally talking about it, and I’m sure we’ll be talking about it again this year. Last year we saw a 40% drop in total comedy posts and 67% this year, which is a huge number. Limited Series Everyone is talking to us about the Limited Series category. This represents a 15% increase in total transmissions. So I totally think it’s something we’ll keep looking at. The more programs we can acknowledge, the more I think that’s a good thing. But it’s clear, at the same time, that scarcity has value so we’re just trying to balance that. But sure, I think we’ll look into it.
I have decided not to conduct a network census this year. why?
In all the materials we have provided, we have certainly given each person the ability to narrow down what belongs to him. But we realized it became a moot point. And what we’re really looking at are performances. We’re glad we can say that “Succession” has the most nominations and that “Ted Lasso” matches her number of nominations last year, hitting 20 again. Because that’s what we celebrate, is software. But we give the tools to our partners so that they can promote themselves. In all that’s in all the stuff, HBO will be able to go and say, “That’s what we’ve had our toll on.” Netflix can do that, but we’ll leave it up to them to sing their own praises. We will focus on the offerings that we honor. This is really our focus.
I imagine it is now difficult to monitor the ports to determine how they enter. HBO unites with HBO Max, produces Nat Geo for Disney+, but is merged as Disney+ and then produces FX for Hulu, but is entered as FX shows. What do you think about how networks and platforms present themselves?
Quite frankly, that’s another one of the reasons why we left them out. We want them to be able to decide how they want to present it. It’s really hard. We receive questions all the time. Well, where did it first appear? Why is it attributed there? All we can really say is that we take our partners the word. If you were to present it as x, we’d say that’s platform X. Unless it’s a terrible abuse of it, but we haven’t seen that. But you’re right, especially with all the different integrations and all the new platforms and everything. It gets really hard to be able to attribution. And we’d rather just let our partners be able to say that and assemble as they want. We could definitely see The Walt Disney Company bringing together every one of its platforms to say, “Here was the total of Disney.” Why don’t they? And it will not necessarily be our task to say what they should or should not attribute there. It is very easy to say that “Succession” has 25 nominations. It’s hard for us to say, “Well, somebody showed up here, and somebody was on this platform.” And I think you’ll continue to see that happen. Warner Bros. Discovery – Who knows what will happen now with their platform.
Miscellaneous drawing. What’s the conversation about what you’re going to do with that? It has fallen to just two nominees again this year. This can’t be sustainable, can it?
We are well aware that diversity categories are things we still want to keep talking about. We’ve had good discussions for the past year and a half. If it was an easy fix, I’m sure we would have come up with it. So we’ll continue to have those conversations. We hope to see some changes coming. This is another species that unfortunately has not yet seen growth. We hope to return it. It fell last year due to the pandemic, and it has fallen again, slightly this year. So it’s definitely something we’re looking at. We made a decision two years ago. Then we heard from our partners that this wasn’t the right decision and we really want to make sure we’re listening to the industry. So this time we’re more in-depth.
Was there any significant impact this year from some of the big rule changes? I got rid of the drama requirement of an hour and a half for comedy. The question of periods of the day has also completely disappeared in favor of literary genres. Do you think this will have a significant impact on the nominations?
We didn’t necessarily see any significant impact. One of the reasons we dumped this condition was because it was really an exception we’d been seeing. For the most part comedies and dramas were comedies and dramas. And if someone needed to file a petition, he was always able to win that petition. So we felt you better go back in your way and enter what you think you are supposed to enter. And if we have a question about it, we’ll come to you and say, “Wait, you know, you’re saying this is a comedy, but it was marketed as a new mystery thriller, why do you say that it’s a comedy all of a sudden? We’ll take that case by case. And I think the whole move toward genre was something we’d already been doing for some time. It was just ‘Hey, we’re doing really well.’ Now with the National Academy. We have a good relationship with them. Adam Sharpe and I talk constantly. We want to see this now is a competition one. And when you have one quiz, there shouldn’t be a lot of questions about “Do I go to this quiz or in the daytime or prime time?” Let’s take it as one and then talk about it with our partners. And make sure that when they move into a category, it’s a relevant category, and they’re entering the categories that are like like, as far as you can get.
Let’s talk about the actual party. Where do things stand? You’ve been a bit quiet about whether or not he’ll return to the Microsoft stage as opposed to returning to the LA Live event platform like last year. Is there a decision yet on where it will actually be held?
I’ll actually leave that up to NBC and the production team Done + Dusted to share the news about it. We’re still watching a lot of what’s happening in the industry. I think we’re making some progress forward in how we present the show, which I’m excited about. But at the same time, we’re seeing a rise in this variable, the BA.5 variable, so we just want to make sure we can give the best view possible. We don’t get ahead of ourselves in advertising what we’re doing.
I know you’re going to bring back the governor’s ball even though you were also calling it a gala event. Are you playing around with the after-party brand, too?
For now, all plans are moving forward to have an after party. We were thrilled about it, just as we think, Was it really a ball in the traditional sense? In particular, you now have “Bridgerton” showing people what a ball really is. What we want to do is focus on it being a celebration and what is the best way to call it a celebration. So we’re still talking about all of that. We just know the industry wants to get back together and wants to party. They want to have a real massive explosion, and that’s kind of a party. So that’s kind of where we’re leaning.
Any ETA on the host(s)? Should we expect an announcement this week or next week?
I really wish I could answer this question for you. It’s a conversation we keep having. We’re having really good conversations with some potential in the industry. Done + Dusted is working hard on it and hopefully we can say something soon.
Done + Dusted and Reggie Hudlin have received positive reviews for their recent Emmys. Talk about having this continuity.
We love our broadcast partners, but as you know, we change broadcast partners every year. So it’s hard to get into a rhythm with your broadcast partner. So it was really cool to be able to get into a rhythm with a producer that he hooked up with. We think the combination of Done + Dusted, Reggie Hudlin and his team has been great for us. There’s no doubt that the work they’ve done during the pandemic has shown kind of, that’s how you can make your award show, in the midst of everything else going on. They’ve continued to think and innovate ever since, too, and we were thrilled with that.
What did you do “
Does it mean to nominate Squid Game as the Academy’s first non-English language program?
I think it just confirms that a good story is a good story. It doesn’t matter what language. I have to admit with a bit of displeasure, that in some ways, the Oscars won us over with Parasite. I think with this kind of platform globalization, you’re going to see that more and more. Netflix has a number of shows that they offer all over the world. I think you see it from amazon. You’ll see it from HBO perhaps. If it’s a great story, it will resonate.
What is your biggest surprise today?
I was thrilled to see the huge divide we’re seeing now regarding men and women in directing and writing, especially in the written categories. We saw it coming. But one of the great things for both female writers and directors but even female writers and color directors, I think is when you look at where they do their work and they are nominated. In the past it was an all-female production, or was primarily an African American-led production. But the things that are currently being nominated, are two women for “Succession”. It’s the woman who wrote “Ted Lasso”…and women of color are in many of those cases, too. So this for me is just really great news. I think it’s a way of showing that equality and inclusion are expanding now. It doesn’t just focus on one or two programs. And that’s wonderful.
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