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The following article is an excerpt from the new edition of “IndieWire’s The Lead Up,” a weekly newsletter in which our Awards Editor Marcus Jones takes readers on the awards trail, interviewing key figures responsible for some of the most compelling stories of the season, and offering predictions on who will win. Subscribe here to receive the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday.
I tend to describe my version of being an Awards Editor as a seasonal job where I focus on film in the fall/winter and TV in the spring/summer. So, although my awards season is never-ending, by the time the Oscars wrap, I could not be more excited to shift my focus to TV, and vice versa.
When spring has sprung, and it’s finally time to buckle down and write about Emmys contenders, one of the first things I do is look at the Emmy rule changes that have been made in the past year. Some of the changes are very routine or practical, like adding new professional titles as recipients for awards. Recent highlights include Associate Casting Director (alongside a plethora of reality casting titles), Key Costumer, Line Producer for reality programs, and Director of Photography (under certain conditions).
Sound Mixing for unscripted TV has been split into two categories: Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Nonfiction Program and Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Reality Program. Reality shows are also now in contention for the newly minted Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary/Nonfiction or Reality Program (Original Dramatic Score) category.
Two quick changes to the Outstanding Main Title Theme Music are that main-on-end themes (which appear after the final act, before the end credits/crawl) are now eligible, and it must appear in 50 percent or more of eligible episodes submitted for the 2026 Emmy competition.
The Television Academy has made it clear that it reserves the right to inquire about the use of AI in submissions, but does not force shows that are submitting for Emmys recognition to disclose whether or not any of them used AI to make their projects.
The changes to the Short Form categories are harder to decipher, as they’ve now become “tracked categories,” but think of it as doubling down, where both the Nonfiction or Reality category and the Comedy, Drama or Variety will both be split into two genres: original series and series based on/derived from other programming. The number of nominees will be proportional to the number of submissions in each genre with at least one nomination for each genre.
It will make more sense in practice, when Primetime Emmy nominations are announced on July 8.
Wendell Pierce and David Simon attend the Museum of the Moving Image presentation of HBO’s ‘The Wire’ reception at The Times Center on July 30, 2008 in New York CityAndrew H. Walker/Getty ImagesIn terms of changes I feel good about, I think the new Legacy Award is vague, but fun. I especially find it hilarious that internet sleuths figured out its five-season, 60-episode eligibility minimum matches up exactly with how long HBO’s “The Wire,” one of the greatest TV series to never win an Emmy, lasted. But one can imagine whichever broadcast network is hosting the telecast that year would want something from its library to win the award (this year’s host NBC definitely has some great options).
The name change from Outstanding Television Movie to Outstanding Movie is reminiscent of the “Drop the ‘The’” scene from “The Social Network.” The TV Academy says it’s to “more accurately reflect the evolving landscape of cinematic content created for broadcast or streaming.”
One of my hot takes is that I don’t understand why networks don’t acquire films from film festivals anymore, especially given all the issues with independent films getting distribution nowadays, plus the great track record those acquisitions have getting nominated for, and even winning Emmys. Maybe the new category name will get rid of some of the stigma around films made primarily for a TV audience. Last year’s winner “Rebel Ridge” felt like a perfect example of the potential these kinds of films have.
Finally, I feel bad for ending on a sour note, but the one change that continues to bum me out is Outstanding Scripted Variety Series and Outstanding Talk Series re-merging to become the Outstanding Variety Series again. I guess the only curiosity surrounding the category now is whether “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” or “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” will continue to win in perpetuity after “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” wraps this season. Late night shows have been in rapid decline, to the point where the broadcast networks really have no incentive to keep them going once a host exits.
“The Late Show” was the first network show to win the Emmy for late night talk shows in over two decades, and one could still argue that Colbert’s association with “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” which has won the lion’s share of Outstanding Variety Series Emmys since 2003, contributed to his Emmy win.
The difference with Outstanding Variety Series now is that it’s another tracked category, this time meaning that nominees will be proportional to the number of submissions received for each format: Scripted Variety and Talk Series. So had the merge happened last year, “Last Week Tonight” and “Saturday Night Live” would be nominated against the three Talk Series nominees in the same category. Furthermore, the category would split again if both formats were to reach 20 submissions in any given year.
John Oliver accepts the Emmy award for Outstanding Scripted Variety Series for ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’ at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards held at the Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, CaliforniaChristopher Polk/VarietyIf that did not sound complicated enough, the Outstanding Variety Series category is also now an area award, meaning it can have multiple Emmy winners. The way voting will work is, instead of Emmy voters selecting one nominee to win, voters must answer for each nominee: “Does this nominee merit an Emmy? Yes/No.” Any nominee that reaches a 90 percent “Yes” threshold receives an Emmy, hence the possibility of multiple winners in the category. If no nominee reaches the 90 percent threshold, the nominee with the highest “Yes” percentage receives an Emmy.
That is a very long explanation for a change that I’m not sure addresses the submissions pool getting smaller and smaller. If everyone is going to go back to voting for “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” again, is the goal of any new late night series just to try and win beside them?
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