Emmy Rule Changes Revealed by Television Academy: No Guest Star Double Dipping, and More Eligibility for Directors

Perhaps we should call it the “Queen Elizabeth rule.” The Television Academy has unveiled a few new Emmy Awards rules tweaks, including one that should impact the guest performer categories. Under the new rule, any performer who had previously been nominated or has won in a lead or supporting category can no longer shift to one of the guest performer races in the same role in future years.

That has become a more common occurrence in this prestige TV age, when actors often play a high-profile role for a few years before departing — with the promise of still making short guest appearances in subsequent seasons.

A good example is Claire Foy, who won the lead drama actress Emmy in 2018 for “The Crown.” She left that show after two seasons (as her role as Princess Elizabeth/Queen Elizabeth was transferred to Olivia Colman and then Imelda Staunton). But Foy would continue to make appearances in flashback form as the younger Elizabeth, earning her an Emmy nom for guest drama actress in 2021, which she won, and another nom in the category in 2024.

Similarly, “This Is Us” star Ron Cephas Jones was nominated in the supporting drama actor category in 2017, when he was a regular cast member. When he moved to recurring, the thesp was nominated in guest drama actor in 2018, 2019 and 2020. (He won in both 2018 and 2020.)

Here’s that rule change: “If a performer has been nominated or has won in a lead or supporting performer category, the performer will not be eligible to submit in a guest performer category in a subsequent Emmy year for playing the same character role in the same series. They may, however, continue to enter in a lead or supporting category.”

That change goes into effect in time for the 77^th Emmy Awards competition in 2025. Also changing this year is a shift in the directing races, where “an eligible individual or the identical team may now enter multiple achievements per category if the achievements are for different programs.” Per the Academy, directors could previously only submit only one entry per category.

“This change will allow the director to submit an episode from each of the programs they directed,” the Academy said.

Also on tap are several changes that will be implemented for the 78^th Emmys in 2026.

In casting: “to streamline the number of reality casting titles that are eligible for Emmy consideration, the following titles will be eligible starting with the 2026 Emmy competition:”

And in the main title theme race, starting in 2026 “a main title theme must appear in 50% or more of eligible episodes submitted for the 2026 Emmy competition. The main title theme has been further defined as a musical fingerprint and calling card that is identifiable and unique to a show, thereby drawing an audience in by setting the show’s tone and what is to come.”