TV Academy expands the number of Emmy comedy and drama nominees

The Hollywood Reporter

Since Emmy submissions are up 15% this year, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has decided to tie the number of nominees to the number of submissions per category. So this year, the number of nominees will expand to eight, up from seven last year. The TV Academy will use a sliding scale: 20-80 submissions get five nominations, 81-160 submissions get six nominations, 161 to 240 submissions get seven nominations and 240 submissions get eight nominations. "The increase in submissions is a reflection of the number of new voices, new television platforms and a tremendous growth in content from existing platforms across our industry," TV Academy chairman and CEO Frank Scherma said in a statement. "Despite production suspension resulting from COVID-19, there is a wealth of excellent work submitted for this year's competition." According to The Hollywood Reporter, "this new rule also eliminates the previous 2% rule, which specified that in categories with five nominees, if the fifth and sixth top vote-getters were within 2% of each other, both would be nominated."