The Emmys are doing away with the hanging episode rule, starting with the 2023 Awards.
The Television Academy announced that its Board of Governors had approved the change, which was recommended by its Awards Committee.
The policy currently allows a series that premieres current-season episodes after the May 31 eligibility deadline, but before the start of voting for nominations, to post those episodes on a platform for Academy members by May 31 for eligibility in the current Emmy competition.
However, next year, only episodes that premiere on a platform available to a national audience by May 31, 2023 will be Emmy-eligible.
The change was made, the TV Academy said, to standardize submissions within the eligibility year.
The Academy also released the following rules for series and limited/anthology series eligibility starting with the 2023 Emmys competition.
Series
• The required number of episodes from a series must premiere nationally by May 31 to be eligible in the current Emmy competition. (Six episodes are required for series in animation, comedy, drama, variety, short form and reality categories. Three episodes are required for documentary series and hosted nonfiction series).
• If a series premieres within the current Emmy eligibility year but doesn’t have the required number of nationally premiered episodes to qualify for its category, the series, along with the individual achievements, would gain eligibility in the subsequent Emmy competition.
• If a series qualifies in the current eligibility year, but has additional episodes from its current season premiering after May 31, those episodes will gain Emmy eligibility with the series’ subsequent season.
• If the series doesn’t return in the subsequent Emmy competition, those episodes would be eligible as single “orphaned” episodes in certain individual achievement categories. Submission for a body of work (including series and acting categories) would not be eligible under the “orphaned” episodes rule.
Limited/Anthology Series
• All episodes/parts of a limited/anthology series must premiere nationally by May 31 to be eligible in the current Emmy competition.
• If all episodes/parts do not premiere within the current eligibility year, the complete limited series, along with the individual achievements, would gain eligibility in the subsequent Emmy competition.
