The TV Academy has a problem with Jon Stewart’s Emmys submission and has forced a change.
Apple TV+ and the creative teams behind “The Problem With Jon Stewart” had plans to compete in the outstanding hosted nonfiction series or special category, where its first season received an Emmy nomination last year. However, the Television Academy has denied its submission and moved the show to the outstanding talk series category, where it will face off against late-night hosts such as Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers.
The other eligible nominees for last year’s outstanding hosted nonfiction series or special — Netflix’s “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman,” Showtime’s “Vice” and winner “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” — will remain in the category for consideration.
Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Emmy predictions.
Letterman’s one-episode special titled “My Next Guest With David Letterman and Volodymyr Zelenskyy” is the closest comparison for why Stewart could have remained in the category. Sources share the TV Academy cited format differences between the two programs as its reason to move Stewart to talk series and allow Letterman to remain in the desired category without having to petition.
Letterman’s 44-minute in-depth conversation with the Ukrainian president includes news clips, archival interviews and footage of the host traveling to Kyiv and performing standup for the military troops and residents. Stewart’s format more so resembles a talk show setting, where he sits one-on-one with various guests to discuss current affairs.
The 12-episode sophomore season, hosted by 22-time Emmy winner Stewart, has received critical raves for the comedian and commentator’s unfiltered, no-holds-barred dialogue. Sitting with various lawmakers and political figures, he discusses many of the country’s most urgent topics such as gun control and the legislative attack against the LGBTQ community. Many clips from the series have gone viral on social media.
The TV Academy continues to try to streamline the process for networks and creative artists to understand where their visions best fit for recognition at the Primetime Emmys. However, there are still grey areas, as some shows and formats either overlap or don’t quite fit into the defined box.
In December 2022, the TV Academy announced the creation of two new categories — outstanding talk series (focusing on “unscripted interviews or panel discussions between a host/hosts and guest celebrities or personalities) and outstanding variety series (concentrating on “programs that are primarily scripted or feature loosely scripted improv and consist of discrete scenes, musical numbers, monologues, comedy stand-ups, sketches, etc.). The change addressed the rapid decline in sketch shows and different topical and news-focused talk series.
Last year, 19 shows were submitted for the now defunct variety talk series category, including HBO’s “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver.” However, the 26-time winner was moved to scripted variety series, where it will face off against its fellow HBO counterpart “A Black Lady Sketch Show” and last year’s winner, NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”
As rules currently stand, if between one and seven shows are entered for a category, “submissions will be screened by the appropriate peer group for nomination; any entry that receives nine-tenths approval will receive a nomination.” If between eight and 19 shows are entered, the number of nominees is determined by dividing the number of submissions by four.
The former variety sketch series category has yielded only two nominees in the past two years — “Black Lady Sketch Show” and “SNL.” In 2022, only eight entries were submitted, which included several now-canceled woman-fronted shows such as “Pause With Sam Jay” from HBO and “Ziwe” from Showtime, both of which will compete for recognition.
