Late-Night Scribes Score Emmy Telecast Win As TV Academy Makes U-Turn To Include Key Writing Category In Primetime Awards On Fox

Writers from late-night shows including Last Week Tonight, The Daily Show and The Late Show among others are heading to the Primetime Emmys after the Television Academy performed a U-turn on its decision to exclude a key writing category from the main awards.

The TV Academy, Fox and the WGA have reached an agreement to include the Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series category, which also includes nominees Late Night with Seth Meyers and Saturday Night Live, during the live telecast.

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The TV Academy, which runs the Emmys, set to air on Fox on January 15, had previously stated that the award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series was set to be handed out at the Creative Arts Emmys, rather than during the Primetime show.

It had been replaced by Outstanding Variety Special (Live) in November.

However, a campaign from the WGA and a number of high-profile late-night stars including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Robin Thede, Colin Jost, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Trevor Noah, John Oliver and Jon Stewart, as well as the threat of an additional payment charge for clips, has helped it change its mind.

The Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series category has been won by the writers of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver for the past seven years so all eyes will now be on Fox as to whether Oliver’s scribes can keep up their win streak.

After the announcement on November 13 that the Outstanding Variety Special (Live) category would air in lieu of Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series or Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special, which have traditionally alternated during the primetime telecast, the WGA lobbied the Emmys organizers.

On November 28, it urged writers to “express your feelings” about the “regrettable” decision to remove it, saying that the TV Academy had made the decision “without any justification or defensible reason.” It previously said that the decision to reduce the number of writing categories on the main telecast from four to three was “misguided given the essential role writers play in the creative process of variety series and generating value for this industry.”

Then, on December 19, the WGA sent out a petition signed by more than 1,400 members, also including Michael Che, Sam Jay, Bomani Jones and Amber Ruffin urging the TV Academy to reinstate the category.

This seems to have worked.

There may have also been some financial considerations at play. Deadline understands that the WGA and the TV Academy had a deal that if the major writing awards were aired on the primetime show, writers waived royalties for clips shown throughout the show and if they weren’t, they’d have to pay for those clips.

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