Emmys upheaval brewing: Nominations voting changes could end show sweeps
The Primetime Emmys recently announced that they would be reconfiguring a couple of variety categories, and the headline news was that it would pit longtime champions “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” and “Saturday Night Live” against each other in the same contest. But there was another major shakeup that awards wonks like me picked up on right away. It’s a subtle, procedural update that doesn’t affect which shows compete in which categories, but it might change who gets nominated, and hopefully for the better.
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The change is a cap on nomination round voting. Exciting, I know, but bear with me. As explained in the TV academy’s press release, “The number of selections each voting member is allowed to make per category in first-round voting will now be capped at the number of nominations specified for that category. Members will no longer be allowed to vote for an unlimited number of selections in any category.”
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In other words, if there are eight nomination slots in a category, voters may only pick eight candidates. In previous years voters could check as many names as they wanted and the contenders with the most votes got the nominations. The problem was, that system was commonly resulting in shows getting three, four, or even five nominations in one category. This past year “Succession” set a record for the most acting nominations in a single year and “The White Lotus” secured 8 out of the 12 supporting nominations for movies/limited series. How does that happen when there are more shows than ever across more platforms than ever? You’d think the nominations would be getting more widely distributed, not more concentrated.
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The likely culprit was the voting system. When you can vote for an unlimited number of candidates in a category, it’s easy enough to check every single name from a show you like. If that show has the most academy eyeballs watching it, you end up with that show crowding out most others for nominations. But when you have a limited number of votes, your selections may get more … well, selective. Maybe you loved “Succession” and “The White Lotus,” but you also loved, say, “Better Call Saul” and “The Dropout.” Perhaps you’d limit your votes for one show to save room for another. Suddenly it would be harder for a show to get so many nominations in one race.
That’s what I hope at least. I intend no slight against “Succession” and “The White Lotus” when I say that there should be more programs recognized at a time of such proliferation (they’re just two examples to illustrate an increasingly common phenomenon). There shouldn’t be just a handful of shows reaping the benefits of peak TV. That said, if there are eight nomination slots in a category, there’s nothing stopping a voter from checking off eight “Succession” or “White Lotus” names in that category. So it remains to be seen if this rule change will have an appreciable effect on the nominations, but it’s a step in the right direction.
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