Emmy rules and shifts in the state of late-night television have conspired to shrink the slate of possible Emmy nominees for Outstanding Talk Series this year to just three.
As first reported by Deadline‘s Peter White, a total of 13 shows submitted themselves for consideration in the category—down from 14 last year and 15 the year before. Per Television Academy rules, that drop has real consequences: when a category gets between 8 and 19 submissions, the number of nominees is determined by dividing the submissions by four and rounding to the nearest whole number. With 13 entries this year, that yields just three official nominees.
It’s a notable downsizing for a category that includes Emmy mainstays like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and Late Night with Seth Meyers. As recently as two years ago, the category had five nominees.
This year’s pool of submissions paints a telling picture of the evolving late-night landscape. In addition to the usual suspects—Kimmel, Colbert, Meyers, Fallon, and The Daily Show—other contenders include Hart to Heart on Peacock, Hot Ones on YouTube, CNN’s Have I Got News For You, Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live, HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, and Dropout’s Very Important People. The biggest curveball? Midnight Snack with Julie Chan, a seven-episode series that premiered on the streamer ASIAN AMERICAN MOVIES (AAM.tv) last fall.
Outstanding Talk Series and its late-night compatriot Outstanding Scripted Variety Series and have long been square pegs in the Emmy ecosystem. Prior to 2015, variety series and talk shows competed in a single “Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Series” category—meaning shows like The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson would compete against Saturday Night Live.
With just four submissions in the Outstanding Scripted Variety Series this year, Last Week Tonight and SNL will go head-to-head in a juried competition that’s already iced out this year’s other two submissions: After Midnight with Taylor Tomlinson and HBO’s Fantasmas.
We should get our first real indication of how this will all shake out when nominations are announced on July 15. The 77th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony is scheduled to air live on CBS Sunday, September 14.
The only show that doesn’t deserve an Emmy nomination is Bunghole Bill Maher’s toilet of a show! Him licking Drumpf’s unwiped taint guarantees he’ll be seen as nothing but a worthless guttersnipe!
Dennis Perkins, is that you?
Your mama!
From your email – caught my attention!
“Emmy rules and shifts in the state of late-night television have conspired to shrink the slate of possible nominees for Outstanding Talk Series this year, promising to shit out at least one of late night’s Emmy mainstays.”
sigh. yes. that was supposed to read “shut”