The Television Academy is preparing for the possibility that this year’s newly recombined Outstanding Variety Series category could produce more than one Emmy winner.
In an interview with Deadline‘s Peter White following Wednesday’s Emmy nominations announcement, Television Academy president and CEO Maury McIntyre said the Academy is “planning for” the possibility that multiple nominees could clear the category’s new 90% approval threshold.
“It is a pretty high bar to clear to get 90% yes votes, but you know it is not unreasonable,” McIntyre said. “It could happen. We are planning for it just in case.”
This year marks the first since the Academy recombined Outstanding Talk Series and Outstanding Scripted Variety Series into one Outstanding Variety Series category. On Wednesday, the nominees were announced, and the list is formidable: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Daily Show, Saturday Night Live, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
Under the new area-award structure, voters will not be asked to choose one winner. Instead, they will vote yes or no on whether each nominated series deserves an Emmy. Any nominee that receives 90% or more yes votes wins. If no nominee reaches 90%, the Emmy goes to the show with the highest percentage of yes votes.
That means the category could produce anywhere from one to five winners.
McIntyre said the area-award system was adopted because the shows in the newly combined category are difficult to compare directly.
“One of the things that we had heard from the community, loud and clear, was these are such disparate shows, it’s hard sometimes to compare them,” he told Deadline. “Like what is Saturday Night Live, how is that really the same as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert? That’s why this idea of the area award made more sense.”
Asked whether the new system could result in both John Oliver and Jimmy Kimmel giving acceptance speeches on Emmy night, McIntyre said yes.
“We wouldn’t even know it until the night,” he said, adding that the production team “might freak” if the category produces a three-way tie, allowing that “if everybody says that every single one of their shows deserves the Emmy, then every single one of their shows could get an Emmy.”
Final-round Emmy voting begins August 17 and runs through August 26 at 10 p.m. PT. Winners will be announced September 14, when the 78th Emmy Awards air live on NBC and Peacock from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
I can’t help but wonder if that was done to increase the chances of a particular show winning, to dilute any show’s win, or let them give an Emmy to every show that pissed Trump off.
As Ed McMahon would say; “You are correct sir!:
Stephen and James at ABC because they hate America. Bill Majer would be my pick.
Maher
Hey Faggy, the ’90s called and they want your washed-up frat boy loser Maher back.
Unfortunately, ‘Majer’ did not make the cut of nominations, and definitely not Bill Maher
His consolation prize: that Mark Twain award thing from last month~
And just to be clear enough, you can still love America while slamming and roasting the leaders who are dragging it to the ground, especially after this month’s array of L’s for the 250th anniversary festivities~
I’m not sure who will reach the 90% YES voter quota, but I’m sure one of them will probably be John Oliver (to the shock of nobody); the others, well-deserved for their nomination posts, is a free-for-all wild card~
For licking Drumpf’s ass! Otherwise, he wouldn’t get his grubby, slimy hands on one!
Cuz yer fuked in the head! And thanks for reminding the world that Bunghole Bill Maher is a fucking MAGAt!