The Television Academy announced new rules for the 2019 Emmys Thursday night, including setting the minimum length for qualifying television movies at 75 minutes.
The rules changes also included the addition of an Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special (Original Dramatic Underscore) award, and restructuring the choreography categories as follows:
- Outstanding Choreography for Variety and Reality Programming (Variety Series, Variety Special, Structured Reality, Unstructured Reality and Competition Program)
- Outstanding Choreography for Scripted Programming (Comedy Series, Drama Series, Limited Series and Television Movie)
The new music composition category will recognize “the unique creative process and evaluation criteria for documentary scoring, versus scoring for scripted series or specials.”
The Academy also announced a slew of other changes, which can be viewed below.
Nomination Tracks for the following Sound Mixing Categories
Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Variety Series or Special: Entries in this category will be recognized in two genres, variety series and variety specials. The number of nominees will be proportional to the number of submissions in each genre, with at least one nomination for each.
Related
Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Nonfiction Program: Entries in this category will be recognized in two genres, documentary/nonfiction programs and reality programs. The number of nominees will be proportional to the number of submissions in each genre, with at least one nomination for each.
Short Form Vetting Procedure
The Academy will adopt a new vetting procedure to identify Emmy-competitive entries in the Short Form categories on nomination-round ballots.
Panelists, randomly selected from a member pool, will evaluate these entries. Panel vetting for placement on the nomination-round ballot will apply to Short Form categories including:
- Outstanding Short Form Drama or Comedy Series
- Outstanding Short Form Variety Program
- Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction or Reality Series
- Outstanding Actor in a Short Form Drama or Comedy Series
- Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Drama or Comedy Series
New Voting Eligibility for Music Supervisors
Music Supervisors will now vote in all music categories (previously Music Supervisors only voted for Outstanding Music Supervision).
Stunt Coordination
Voting in both categories shall be determined in a three-step process: All entries will be viewed in their entirety by the Stunt Coordination Peer Group Executive Committee (PGEC). Based on a weighted score of all the entries by the PGEC, up to the top 10 scoring entries in Comedy Series or Variety Program and up to the top 15 Drama Series, Limited Series or Movie will be presented to the Stunt Coordination peer group via “at home” online viewing to determine the nominations.
Winners will be determined by the members of the Stunt Coordination, Performer and Director Peer Groups via “at home” online viewing of the nominated entries.
Hanging Episode Eligibility
Eligibility changed from “airing prior to the nomination-round voting deadline” to “airing prior to the start of nomination-round voting.”
Addendum to Hanging Episode Rule:
Programmed networks may post episodes on a distribution platform in advance of the episodes’ airdates in cases where they otherwise would be “hanging” or ineligible because they are scheduled outside the eligibility period. Posting must meet the following criteria:
- Episodes must be posted within the current eligibility year (i.e., by May 31).
- Episodes may be posted on a private distribution platform accessible only to Television Academy membership.
- Episodes must be the same in form and content as they will later appear in their regular time slots.
- The subsequent airing of the episodes must take place within the month of June.