TV Academy Merges Talk and Scripted Variety Emmy Categories into One ‘Area’ Competition, Which Could Lead to Multiple Winners

The Television Academy may have finally solved its talk and scripted variety conundrum. As the number of eligible late night talk shows and sketch series continues to shrink, the org’s Board of Governors has voted to once again merge the outstanding scripted variety series and outstanding talk series categories into one: The return of the outstanding variety series category.

A similar attempt to combine the two variety series categories back into one was met with outrage in December 2020, and after uproar from high-profile figures in the variety field, the Academy was forced to retreat from that plan.

But a little over five years later, the decline in volume has become even more pronounced, forcing the issue. But this time, the decision to reintroduce the “outstanding variety series” category comes with several twists and caveats clearly created to avoid another backlash. It may be a clunky solution, but it probably has the best shot at appeasing the producers, talent and awards executives who have long complained about the categories.

For example, although talk and scripted variety are merging, the number of nominations coming from both fields will be tracked based on the number of submissions for each format.

Last year, there were three nominations in outstanding talk (out of 13 submissions), and two nominations in scripted variety (out of six submissions). (For categories with between eight and 19 submissions, divide the number of submissions by 4 and round to the nearest number. That’s how outstanding talk landed with three noms last year. For categories with seven or fewer submissions, the appropriate peer group must screen submissions, and any entry (up to two) that receives 70% approval will receive a nomination — hence the two last year for scripted variety.)

The Academy noted that had this rule been implemented last year, the merged outstanding variety series category would have had five nominations — essentially combining the three from talk and two from scripted variety.

Last year, “The Daily Show” won the Emmy for outstanding talk and “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” won for scripted variety. This year, despite those two categories being merged, there’s still a chance that outstanding variety series could yield two — or even more — winners.

That’s because, as part of this rule change, the Academy has also decreed that the outstanding variety series category will now be an “area” award. Nominees in “area” award categories aren’t competing against each other — they’re all independently trying to get at least 90% of Emmy voters to say “yes” when asked, “Does this nominee merit an Emmy?” Any nominated show will win an Emmy if 90% of voters agree.

So conceivably, if voters overwhelmingly love talk and scripted variety shows, you could see Emmys in the same year for “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” “The Daily Show,” “Saturday Night Live,” “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” — hell, everyone.

Of course, 90% is a steep threshold to reach, even for the most universally beloved of shows. That’s why the Academy made sure that there will always be at least one victor in outstanding variety series: If no nominee hits that 90% approval vote, the nominee with the highest “yes” percentage will still win the outstanding variety series Emmy.

Meanwhile, perhaps optimistically, the TV Academy isn’t closing the door to once again splitting outstanding variety series into two. Because the category is tracked, should both talk and scripted variety receive at least 20 submissions in a given year, that would immediately trigger splitting the category back into two without any review or vote from the board.

Such a re-split might seem unlikely right now, given the ever-declining submissions in talk and scripted variety. And with “The Late Show” ending in May, the talk tally will continue to decline in future years.

But there’s a glimmer of hope here: The rise of video podcasts and creator-driven scripted variety productions on platforms like YouTube could actually reverse that submission slide — depending on eligibility and if those programs are submitted.

“Outstanding Variety Series” had been a catch-all category for decades, until 2015. Prior to 2012, had been called “Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series” for most of the 1990s and 2000s, and “Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Program” through the 1980s.

The original reason for splitting the field was the complaint among producers that “outstanding variety” was an apples vs. oranges category, pitting daily chat shows against weekly sketch series. When “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” (and then “The Colbert Report”) went on a non-stop consecutive run starting in 2003, sketch series like “SNL” felt completely boxed out.

In 2015, the Academy agreed there were enough submissions to split variety series into outstanding talk and outstanding sketch. (This was when sketch was experiencing a boom, with shows like “Key and Peele” and “Portlandia” in addition to the stalwart “SNL.”)

That was better, but it still didn’t appease producers, who felt that the talk competition remained unfair because it pit weekday, interview-focused late night shows vs. late night shows with strong variety show elements vs. more politically-driven weekly shows.

In 2023, the Academy attempted to solve that issue by redefining outstanding talk series as shows that focus on “unscripted interviews or panel discussions between a host/hosts and guest celebrities or personalities”; and replace outstanding sketch with outstanding scripted variety series, which focused on “programs that are primarily scripted or feature loosely scripted improv and consist of discrete scenes, musical numbers, monologues, comedy stand-ups, sketches, etc.”

That was still a stopgap solution, however, as the only noticeable change wound up being the relocation of “Last Week Tonight” from talk series — where it was winning every year — to scripted variety, where it started winning every year.

There’s plenty of precedent at the TV Academy for merging, unmerging and remerging categories depending on the expansion or contraction of a program type; for example, during the early 2010s, the TV miniseries and made-for-TV movie categories were merged when production on both genres declined — until an increase in original cable and streaming output reversed that trend, and TV movies and miniseries (renamed “limited series”) returned to their own categories.

The re-merged outstanding variety series category joins a handful of other Emmy rules changes the TV Academy announced earlier this month  — including a new name for the TV movie category, which will now be known as “outstanding movie.” Also, the org revealed AI guidelines, in which it “reserves the right to inquire about the use of AI in submissions. The core of our recognition remains centered on human storytelling, regardless of the tools used to bring it to life.” And the Academy included changes to the short form, sound mixing and music categories and also expanded eligibility in the casting, costume and lighting, camera & technical arts categories.