Television Academy members have officially received their ballots for the 2020 Primetime and Creative Arts Emmys. And after months of Emmy campaigning sort of turned into a more traditional phase one campaign than expected (FYC outdoor advertising has popped up all over LA, more zoom Q&As than anyone could possibly watch), the nomination game is finally in the home stretch. Unfortunately, the final ballot offered bad news for any series battling to land a Limited Series nomination.
READ MORE: Emmy 2020: Comedy and Drama Series jump to eight nominees at the last minute
As revealed a few weeks ago, the Television Academy announced a last-minute change to the rules because of a record number of submissions. If a category landed less than 80 qualified submissions there would only be five nominees in the category, if a category had between 81-160 submissions there would be six nominees, and if over 161 there would be seven while those with over 240 are set for eight nods. For Limited Series, the total number of nominees came in at just 41 contenders (actually up from last year’s 35). That means a massive number of snubs when considering a critically acclaimed group that includes “Mrs. America,” “Normal People,” “The Plot Against America,” “Watchmen,” “Devs,” “Mrs. Fletcher,” “Barkskins,” “Unorthodox” and “Unbelievable” as well as popular favorites “Little Fires Everywhere,” “Hollywood” and “Defending Jacob.”
The good news is thanks to over 80 submissions each, a number of supporting acting categories that encompass Limited Series (as well as TV Movie) the number of nominees has swelled to six contenders. The following categories should have six nominees for 2020:
Supporting Actress in a Limited Series/TV movie
Supporting Actor in a Limited Series/TV movie
Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
The bad news is that Lead Actor in a Limited Series/TV Movie and Lead Actress in Limited Series/TV Movie will only have five nominees each.
The largest acting crop of nominees? Supporting for Comedy and Drama Series. Thanks to a massive number of submissions, all four of those categories will have eight nominees each.
Other major categories limited to just five nominees include Variety Talk Series, TV Movie, Variety Special – Live, Short Form Comedy or Drama Series, Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special, Structured Reality Program, Nonfiction or Reality Program, Short Form Variety Series and Competition Series (which somehow has been knocked from six nominations for the first time since 2010). Thanks to a ton of coronavirus pandemic produced specials, the Variety Sketch Series category is looking at six nominees.
Emmy nomination voting ends at 10 PM on July 13. Nominations for the 2020 Emmy Awards will be announced on July 28.
Emmy Season Prediction Pages
Drama Series
Comedy Series
Limited Series
TV movie
Competition Series
Actress in a Drama Series
Actor in a Drama Series
Actress in a Comedy Series
Actor in a Comedy Series
