TV Academy Reveals Emmy Category Assignments Across Its Three Ceremonies
Libby Hill
The Television Academy announced the category distribution for the 71st Emmy Awards and the 2019 Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremonies on Friday, making a few small changes to the ways the presentations were split in 2018.
Specifically, the award for Outstanding Television Movie has made the jump to the Sept. 22 Emmy Awards telecast, meaning that audiences will be able to watch the battle between Netflix’s “Bandersnatch (Black Mirror)” and HBO’s “Deadwood: The Movie” in real time, an opportunity not afforded them last year when a “Black Mirror” episode triumphed in the category for the second consecutive year.
With TV movie moving to the main stage, the writing and directing categories for Variety Special have been reassigned to Sept. 14, the first night of the Creative Arts Awards ceremonies. It’s a move that makes sense, given that the bulk of the adjacent Variety Special awards are given that same night, including Outstanding Variety Special (Live) and Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded).
The TV Academy is boasting 124 competitive categories for this year’s Emmy Awards and announced a bulk of the nominations on July 16, with HBO’s “Game of Thrones” earning a record-breaking 32 nominations for its final season and leading the cable service provider to an overall 137 nominations on the whole.
And while things are falling into place for the September ceremonies, the Emmy telecast has yet to nab a host to emcee the show. Typically, the network broadcasting the telecast picks a homegrown talent — i.e. a prominent star, comedian, or late night host from their network — to tackle the job, which leaves Fox in a bit of a pickle, given its distinct lack of late night offerings. Andy Samberg hosted the Emmys when last Fox was on tap. The “Saturday Night Live” alum was the star of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” at the time, but the series has since relocated to NBC.
It’s possible the Academy is considering going hostless this year, after the Academy Awards opted to go that route in February to great success. As for timing, when NBC featured the Emmy Awards last year, the show’s hosts — “Saturday Night Live” head writers Michael Che and Colin Jost — were announced for the gig in April.
Final-round Emmy voting is open from Thursday, Aug. 15 through Thursday, Aug. 29 at 10 p.m. PT. Winners for the 71st Primetime Emmys Creative Arts Awards will be announced the weekend of Sept. 14 and 15, with the Primetime Emmys ceremony broadcast live on Fox on Sunday, Sept. 22.
For more on this year’s Emmy race, please head over to IndieWire’s Awards page, where you’ll find breaking news, Consider This profiles, and Emmy predictions in 21 categories.
