Good and Bad TV Shows: How Shows Are Selected for the Emmy Awards

Every year, the Emmy Awards honor the best TV series, actors, directors, and writers. But viewers don’t vote for the winners, and a show’s popularity doesn’t guarantee it an Emmy. Let’s take a look at how a TV series enters the awards race, who selects the nominees, and why even a good show might not win an Emmy.

How the Emmys Came to Be

Today, the Emmys are considered one of the television industry’s premier awards. But it all began on a much more modest scale. The first Emmy Awards ceremony was held on January 25, 1949, at the Hollywood Athletic Club in Los Angeles. At that time, the awards were primarily focused on local television: programs and industry representatives from Los Angeles received the honors.

The first program to win an Emmy was *Pantomime Quiz Time* —a game show that aired on KTLA in Los Angeles. It won in the “Most Popular Television Program” category. The show was a television version of the game of charades: contestants acted out given words and phrases without speaking, and rival teams tried to guess them.

Gradually, television became an increasingly large-scale industry, and the awards evolved along with it. The “The Emmys” expanded beyond a single city, new categories were introduced, and the award itself came to recognize not only actors and hosts but also professionals in dozens of television fields—from screenwriters and directors to editors, sound engineers, and visual effects specialists.

The award’s name is also tied to the history of television. It derives from the word “Immy”—the nickname for one of the earliest television technologies, the image orthicon tube. Later, the name was changed to “Emmy.”

The Emmy statuette depicts a winged woman holding an atom. The wings symbolize art, while the atom represents science and technology. In this way, the award’s creators sought to unite two important aspects of television: creativity and technological progress.

Over the course of several decades, the television industry has changed almost beyond recognition. Cable networks joined traditional TV channels, followed by streaming services. Today, projects from Netflix, HBO, Apple TV+, Hulu, FX, and other major companies compete for Emmys. But the award’s core principle remains the same: winners are selected by representatives of the television industry itself.

How a Series Qualifies for the Emmys

Not every series that premieres during the year automatically qualifies for the Emmys. First, the project must meet the award’s requirements. In the industry, this is referred to as “eligibility”—that is, meeting the conditions for participation.

For each awards cycle, the Television Academy sets a timeframe within which a program must premiere to be eligible for an award. In addition to the premiere date, the series must comply with the rules of its specific category. After that, the project must be officially submitted for consideration.

The Television Academy does not compile the list of nominees on its own. A studio or streaming platform must submit the project, after which the Academy verifies whether it meets the established rules. But between all the selection stages, there is another important element—the awards campaign.

“Please Consider Us”: Why TV Series Need an FYC Campaign

Before voting begins, studios and streaming services launch so-called FYC campaigns—short for “For Your Consideration.” The main goal of such a campaign is to draw the attention of Television Academy members to the series. Companies may organize special screenings, meet-and-greets with actors and creators, discussions, presentations, and other events for Academy members.

At first glance, it might seem that if a series is truly good, it doesn’t need extra promotion. But the modern television industry produces far too many projects. Members of the Television Academy simply cannot watch every series in the running for awards. Therefore, a series must first at least catch the voters’ attention.

This is where one of the main questions surrounding the Emmys arises: does the best series always win, or does the one that managed to get noticed have the advantage?

Officially, the scale of a promotional campaign is not a criterion for winning an award. But FYC helps a series gain visibility, which means it increases the chances that it will actually be watched and considered during the voting process. At the same time, studios cannot directly buy votes or promise anything in exchange for support. The Television Academy sets the rules for award campaigns and voting.

Therefore, it’s more accurate to say this: money can’t guarantee a series an “Emmy,” but it can help it catch the attention of those who select the winners.

Who Decides Which Category a Series Will Be In

Before making it onto the ballot, a series must be placed in one of the categories. It is precisely at this stage that disputes sometimes arise. The genre that viewers see on screen does not always match the category in which the series competes for an Emmy. This is especially true for dramedies, satires, dark comedies, and other projects that are difficult to categorize into just one genre.

The Television Academy uses its own rules to determine categories. Episode length can also play a role: historically, half-hour shows are more often classified as comedies, while hour-long shows are classified as dramas. However, in disputed cases, producers can request that a project be considered in a different category.

One of the most famous contemporary examples is the series *The Bear*. Its plot centers on a chef who returns to Chicago after his brother’s death and tries to save the family restaurant. Despite its dramatic plot, heavy themes, and tense atmosphere, *The Bear* competes in the comedy categories at the Emmys. This regularly raises questions among viewers and critics. But what matters for the awards isn’t just the conventional genre classification—it’s the Television Academy’s official category system and rules.

How TV Series Are Actually Selected

Emmy winners are not chosen by viewers or critics. Members of the Television Academy—representatives of the television industry, including actors, directors, screenwriters, producers, cinematographers, and others—vote for the nominees and winners.

Voting for the Emmys takes place in two main stages. The first stage is the selection of nominees. Members of the Television Academy choose TV series and other works they consider worthy of making the final list. Based on the results of this stage, the Academy announces the nominees.

The second stage is the final voting. After the nominees are announced, a new round of voting begins. The winners are determined based on the results of this round. Nominees themselves are not allowed to vote in the category in which they are nominated.

Are experts required to watch the entire series?

There is no requirement that every member of the Television Academy must watch all seasons and all episodes of every nominee. That would be practically impossible.

Let’s say there are eight series in one category. If each has ten episodes lasting about an hour, it would take about 80 hours just to watch one category. But Academy members also have other categories in which they can vote. Therefore, the nominated series provide materials for final consideration—specific episodes that become part of the official set of materials for the final vote.

Consequently, the selection of episodes also becomes part of the awards strategy. Studios are interested in submitting episodes that best showcase the project’s strengths.

What Criteria Are Used to Select the Best Series?

This is where it gets really interesting. The Emmys don’t have a single, official rating scale for TV series. The Television Academy doesn’t tell voters: give 30 points for the script, 30 for the actors, and another 20 for the direction. No such system exists, and the choice is left entirely up to the voters.

Each element may receive its own award. But the top prize for a series is recognition of the project as a cohesive whole.

Why the Emmys Are Criticized

Despite their status as one of the major television awards, the Emmys are regularly criticized—with complaints coming from viewers, journalists, and industry representatives alike.

The Emmys are also criticized for favoring certain favorites. Sometimes a single series receives several nominations at once in the acting categories and takes up a significant portion of the list of nominees. For example, journalists have pointed out that a few of the most popular shows can take up more than a third of all acting nominations, leaving less room for other series and performers. This raises another question: Does the Academy truly discover new shows every year, or do voters simply keep choosing the same familiar favorites?

Finally, the awards are regularly accused of being subjective and unpredictable. The Emmys do not have a unified evaluation system, so one voter might choose a series for its originality, another for its acting, and a third simply because that particular show made the strongest impression on them. Because of this, lists of the top “underrated” series and discussions of unfair wins surface every year.

Perhaps this is precisely the main paradox of the Emmys: the award attempts to determine the best TV series of the year, even though its creators themselves do not offer a definitive answer to the question of what actually makes a series the best.