Outstanding Variety Series Is Back as an Emmys Category, with the Possibility of Multiple Winners

In a bit of news that will likely benefit 10-years-running Emmy winner “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” the most, the Television Academy has announced that the Outstanding Scripted Variety Series and Outstanding Talk Series categories will once again merge to form one Outstanding Variety Series category for the 2026 Emmy Awards competition. 

The decision, voted on by the Academy’s Board of Governors, has felt inevitable since submissions for both Emmy categories have dwindled in recent years. As a way to address that concern — and spin it into something positive — the merged awards category will now be tracked so that nominees will be proportional to the number of submissions received for each format: Scripted Variety and Talk Series. For example, had the categories been similarly merged last year, the number of nominees in both formats would have been the same: two for Scripted Variety and three for Talk. 

Emmy rules state that a tracked category allows for an automatic split of the awards category when there is a resurgence in the number of variety programs. The categories would split without needing review or a vote from the board when both formats reach 20 submissions in any given year.

Additionally, the Academy is reclassifying the Outstanding Variety Series category as an area award, which could result in multiple Emmy winners. In an area award, nominees are judged individually on their own merits. Instead of Emmy voters selecting one nominee to win, voters must answer for each nominee: “Does this nominee merit an Emmy? Yes/No.” Any nominee who reaches a 90 percent “Yes” threshold receives an Emmy, providing the opportunity for multiple winners in the category.  If no nominee reaches the 90 percent threshold, the nominee with the highest “Yes” percentage receives an Emmy.

The move provides a glimmer of hope for what’s left of the more traditional late-night talk shows on network TV to finally receive more Emmys recognition. Until last year when “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” won the Emmy for Outstanding Talk Series (presumably in reaction to the CBS series being unceremoniously canceled), the category for late-night talk shows (which has gone through various names) was won by a cable series every year since 2003.