LOS ANGELES, Sept. 18 (UPI) — The Television Academy is changing its voting rules again as the 67th annual Emmy Awards ceremony revs up to tackle the best TV programs of 2015.
Last year, changes to the rules consisted of the separation of the Outstanding Miniseries or Movie category into two separate fields. The academy also added two new categories including Outstanding Structured Reality Program and Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program.
This year, winners of the Emmys will be decided based on several new rule changes ranging from term clarifications to expansion of the number of nominees for a given category. Arguably the most distinct rule change, according to some sources, is in reference to who is allowed to vote for the awards. This year, all of the members of the Television Academy — a total of 15,000 or more — will have the opportunity to vote for winners via an online voting system.
Before 2015, winners were primarily chosen based on the votes of a small panel of industry workers including actors, directors and the like. The new rule allowing a larger group to vote for any particular category will make more accurate the actual winners of the awards.
Another notable change in the rules consists of the expansion of the number of nominees for two major categories: “Comedy” and “Drama.”
There are reportedly more series nominees than ever before as the awards near due to the inundation of higher quality programming both on television and specialty streaming sites like Netflix. Therefore, the Academy added an extra spot for nominees in both categories, moving up from six possible nominees to seven. In conjunction with last year’s 2 percent rule, the group of nominees for any category however, will be capped at eight if the seventh and eighth nominees differ in score by 2 percent.
The Academy has also determined, in terms of series designation for the awards, a “comedy” is a show less than or equal to 30 minutes long; a “drama” is one with 60-minute episodes. “A series may formally petition the Academy to consider that series eligible in the alternative category (i.e. a thirty (30) minute series submitting as a “Drama” and/or a sixty (60) minute series submitting as a “Comedy”),” a document released by the Academy reads.
Another clarification is regarding the term “Limited Series” which is taking the place of “Miniseries.” According the the Academy, a limited series is defined as “a program with two or more episodes with a total running time of at least 150 program minutes, that tells a complete, non-recurring story, and does not have an on-going storyline and/or main characters in subsequent seasons.” Limited series may also not have more than five episodes, the document states.
The term “Guest Performer” was also clarified for this year’s Emmys. This time, an actor or entertainer may decide to submit themselves in the “Guest Actor,” “Supporting Actor” or “Lead Actor” categories. If an actor appears in more than half of a given show, they will not be considered a guest actor.
This year’s Emmys will air at 5:00 p.m. PDT Sept. 20 on FOX.
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