Emmys Increase Comedy and Drama Nominees, Announce New Changes in Other Categories

The Emmy Awards are getting a quick update. On Wednesday, the Television Academy announced a couple changes to this year’s awards ceremony, sharing that it would expand the number of nominations in the comedy and drama categories to eight total, regardless of the number of submissions.

However, as the number of television series and projects continue to grow, the Academy also restructured how many nominees are selected in other categories.

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As the number of Emmy submissions for 2020 has increased by 15 percent, the Academy noted, “the number of nominees per category will now be based on the number of submissions in each category.”

“The increase in submissions is a reflection of the number of new voices, new television platforms and a tremendous growth in content from existing platforms across our industry,” said Television Academy Chairman and CEO Frank Scherma. “Despite production suspension resulting from COVID-19, there is a wealth of excellent work submitted for this year’s competition.”

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The number of nominations in a category will now be determined using the following criteria:

1-19 submissions: A sliding scale between zero to 4 nominations

20-80 submissions: 5 nominations

81-160 submissions: 6 nominations

161-240 submissions: 7 nominations

> 240 submissions: 8 nominations

Meanwhile, earlier this week, it was announced that Jimmy Kimmel would host the 2020 Emmys.

While it’s unclear whether the awards ceremony, which is set for Sunday, Sept. 20 as previously scheduled, will take place in person or will end up going virtual amid the coronavirus pandemic, one thing is certain: This year’s broadcast will likely be noticeably different. Details for the Emmys will be announced at a later date.

The Oscars and the BAFTAs also announced that they would be pushing their 2021 dates by several months.