The double dip is making a return. The TV Academy has removed its rule barring documentaries from campaigning for both an Oscar and and Emmy — as long as those docs weren’t nominated for an Academy Award.
Specifically, “Documentaries that appear on the AMPAS viewing platform but have not received an Oscar nomination may still qualify for Emmy consideration.”
That returns the Emmy rules to its pre-2022 stipulations. Starting last year, documentary films placed on the AMPAS viewing platform were ineligible for Emmy consideration. At that point, the rule had been changed to read, “Any film placed on the AMPAS viewing platform will be deemed a theatrical motion picture and thus ineligible for the Emmy competition.”
But the new rule reversal now “aligns the Television Academy and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in their approach to documentary submissions,” the TV Academy announced Tuesday.
But it still keeps in place the stipulation, effective in 2021, that programs that have been nominated for an Oscar will no longer be eligible for the Emmys competition. Prior to that, films that had been nominated for an Oscar could then still enter the Emmy race.
Now, docs that had campaigned for an Oscar yet didn’t make it to the list of five nominees will once again be able to try for an Emmy. That means nominees like “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” (HBO), “Fire of Love” (Nat Geo) and “Navalny” (CNN and HBO Max) can’t go after the Emmy. But shortlisted docs like “The Territory” (Nat Geo), “Retrograde” (Disney+), “Moonage Daydream” (HBO) and “Descendant” (Netflix) might.
In the past, the platform confusion came out of the fact that it’s often TV outlets such as HBO, PBS or Nat Geo commissioning and funding the projects to air on their networks — making them, arguably, TV projects. But if they’re screened in theaters, the Oscars could claim them too.
In other rule change decisions, the Television Academy has added a new Emmy category and juried award for the redefined Emerging Media Programming peer group.
The new peer group, which replaced the Interactive Media peer group, is behind “outstanding innovation in emerging media programming,” a juried award which is given to “producer(s), company(s), and/or individual(s) responsible for the creation of groundbreaking emerging media programming that demonstrates technical or storytelling innovation, significantly elevating the audience’s viewing experience beyond traditional linear TV programming.”
And the “outstanding emerging media program” category goes to “to producer(s), company(s), and/or individual(s) responsible for the creation of emerging media programming related to an existing linear television program or series or one that is entirely original. The award recognizes content that is central and fundamental to the work itself and demonstrates creative excellence, elevating the audience’s viewing experience beyond traditional linear programming.”
According to the Academy, “the new awards recognize professionals from across the industry who create or have an impact on emerging media program content, such as: virtual, alternate, mixed or extended reality interactive storytelling; viewer-driven narratives, storylines and sequences of content consumption; and multi-platform and/or metaverse storytelling.”
The new rules will be added to previously announced changes that included the launch of two new categories to replace the variety talk competition: Outstanding talk series, which will center on shows that focus on “unscripted interviews or panel discussions between a host/hosts and guest celebrities or personalities”; and outstanding scripted variety series, which focuses on “programs that are primarily scripted or feature loosely scripted improv and consist of discrete scenes, musical numbers, monologues, comedy stand-ups, sketches, etc.”
