Yuck it up for 60 minutes straight, because “Shameless,” “Jane The Virgin” and “Glee” have officially been dubbed comedies for Emmy consideration purposes, representing the Television Academy’s first Industry Panel decisions.
Per a recent National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) policy change, for a 60-minute show to be considered a comedy or a 30-minute one to enter the Emmy Awards as a drama, two-thirds of the new nine-member panel must say so. The panel consists of five industry leaders appointed by the Academy Chairman and four appointees by the Board of Governors.
The aforementioned Showtime, CW and Fox series will compete in the comedy category for all awards, both at the show and individual levels.
The Academy’s Industry Panel was announced last month to formalize the process for evaluating series category eligibility. A producer, network or studio may elect to submit a 60-minute series as a comedy or a 30-minute series as a drama on their application. The Industry Panel then watches the programming and evaluates if the series is predominately a comedy or drama.
Other changes at the time included expanding the two top categories to include seven nominations apiece, changing the term “miniseries” to “limited series,” restricting guest actor episode count, breaking out variety series into two groups, and growing voting privileges to additional Academy members.
Nominations for the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards will be announced the morning of Thursday, July 16.
The awards show telecast, hosted by Andy Samberg, will air live coast-to-coast on Sunday, Sep. 20 (8-11 p.m. ET) on Fox.