The Emmys are firming up the rules for their outstanding TV movie category, making it so that eligible projects must be at least 75 minutes long in order to compete. Why the change? Because for the past few years, TV shows like Sherlock and Black Mirror have sneaked into the category and won—even though, strictly speaking, standout episodes like “USS Callister” and “San Junipero” are not actually TV movies.
As the boundaries of TV continue to expand and mutate, the Emmys have had to find a way to keep up, establishing clear lines of competition after the explosion of anthologies on the market. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the TV Academy voted on the new TV movie rule on Thursday night. Technically, the Black Mirror episode “USS Callister,” which won this year, still would have been eligible since it’s 76 minutes long, but “San Junipero,” which won last year, would have been knocked out of the running. Perhaps the only real change is that anthology producers will juice the running time of potential special episodes, with an eye toward this category. Next year’s Emmys will give us a better picture of the tack they take.
On Thursday, the TV Academy also added a new category for outstanding music composition for a documentary series or special. Which, O.K., nice! It was also announced that the choreography category will have two separate juried awards: one for outstanding choreography for variety and reality programming, and one for outstanding choreography for scripted programming. So You Think You Can Dance has largely dominated the original outstanding choreography for the last few years, so this will be a nice way for scripted shows like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which won in 2016, to get in on the action without having to face all the strictly dance-themed shows on the air. Emmys for all!
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