WHEN the Emmy Award nominations for next month’s ceremony were unveiled, there was a glaring shortage of love for popular dramas The Good Wife, Scandal and The Blacklist.
Although some of those broad-cast network shows received acting bids, all were snubbed in the Best Drama Series category – eclipsed by cable and online programmes that typically produce far few episodes a season than the 22 or so hours cranked out by broadcasters.
Is it time for a rules change or two, such as separating longer-and shorter-run series into two categories, or maybe expanding the number of drama and comedy series nominees from six to 10?
Maybe, said the head of the TV academy, but it won’t be because of criticism about this year’s outcome, said Bruce Rosenblum, chairman and chief executive of the Emmy organising body.
The academy regularly reviews its rules, but he defended the bids announced last week, saying “We’re in a golden age of television.” He said the Emmy voters who represent the TV industry did a “terrific job” of nominating the best shows.
He noted that the number of drama and comedy submissions had risen sharply in the past five years and said that the possibility of category expansion is “on the list” for consideration.
Rosenblum was also pressed about this year’s “category-jumping” by some candidates. That includes the dark, prison-set series Orange is the New Black (OITNB), entered for best comedy series, as was Shameless, about a highly dysfunctional family, which switched after failing to get traction in the past for top drama series honours.
HBO’s True Detective, despite miniseries trappings including a closed-ended story, is a Best Drama Series nominee.
HBO and new players such as Netflix (House of Cards, OITNB) were producing shows and releasing them in ways that represented an “evolution” of the TV business, Rosenblum said.
Might that prompt the academy to introduce new categories? That was not the academy’s goal, Rosenblum replied.
According to Don Mischer, executive producer of the Primetime Emmy Awards to be aired on August 25 on NBC, adding “more and more awards” is not the solution. As it is, he has the challenge of fitting two-dozen categories into a three-hour show and keeping it lively. – Sapa-AP