Today, it was announced that the Academy’s Board of Governors voted to shift five categories from the Primetime Emmys broadcast to the less-viewed Creative Arts ceremony that takes place one week earlier. The demoted categories include Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series or Anthology or Movie, and Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series or Anthology or Movie.
The reasoning behind this change is simple. Supposedly, the Emmys ceremony is too long, and it needs to be trimmed. This is not the first controversial action to shorten the Emmys: who can forget the infamous rule last year that Emmy winners who went over their allotted time would have their money taken away from charity? This is also not the first time an awards show cut categories from their broadcast, as the 2022 Oscars did not air 8 technical categories — Documentary (Short Subject), Film Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Score), Production Design, Short Film (Animated), Short Film (Live Action), Sound — before reinstating them in subsequent ceremonies.
Why these five categories? TV Academy chair Cris Abrego has said, “…rather than concentrating on the change in one discipline or one peer group, it’s a small number of categories across the performances, writing, and directing.” Yet there is still a clear similarity among the five removed categories, as four of them are in the Limited Series category. As a result, only three awards from the genre will be aired live: Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Sure, there might not have been an unambiguous hit miniseries this year in the vein of “Adolescence,” “Baby Reindeer,” and “The Queen’s Gambit.” I loved quite a few of the nominees, but none had the combination of breakthrough viewership and unanimous critical acclaim that those shows possessed. But demoting so many categories in this genre specifically feels like an insult to all the miniseries released this year, as if these categories were nixed because the Board of Governors felt few would miss the limited series this year, not taking home Emmy awards. This could not be further from the truth, as many of the year’s finest shows have been limited series.
With this rule, we would not see legends like Julianne Nicholson or Jennifer Coolidge win their first-ever Emmys for “Mare of Easttown” and “The White Lotus,” respectively. We would not see “Beef” creator Lee Sung Jin break barriers with his Emmy wins for writing and directing “Beef.” We would not see Michaela Coel win an Emmy for writing the breathtaking “I May Destroy You,” the only one she won for the show overall. We would not see Owen Cooper become the youngest-ever acting Emmy winner for “Adolescence.”
There are several exciting moments this year that we could miss out on seeing in the live broadcast. Linda Cardellini could win her first Emmy for “DTF St. Louis” after phenomenal work in series like “Mad Men” and “Dead to Me.” Ditto goes for her co-star David Harbour, long beloved for his turn as “Stranger Things” fan favorite Jim Hopper. Lee Sung Jin could be the first Asian to win a directing Emmy twice for his work on the second season of “Beef.” The writers for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” who are infamously now out of a job, could win an Emmy for scripting the show for the first time.
The comedy bits are an enjoyable part of the Primetime Emmy awards, but no one watches this ceremony to see A-listers read jokes off a teleprompter. They watch the ceremony to see the talent behind their favorite series win a prestigious, richly deserved award. If the goal is to leave more time for memorable moments in the broadcast, it feels counterintuitive to skip five passionate speeches that mean a great deal to the newly minted Emmy winners and to those who are fans of the winning shows. I can only hope this decision gets reversed, much like the decision to announce the nominees for nine craft categories one week after the rest of the 2026 Emmy nominations was walked back.
What do you think of this news for the 2026 Emmy Awards? Please let us know in the comments section below or over on our X account and check out our latest Emmy nomination predictions here.
