The Emmys Needed to Do Something About Talk and Scripted Variety, Even If the Result Was Something Just as Clunky

First off, kudos to the Television Academy for finally doing something about the paltry talk and scripted variety categories.

The return of a combined outstanding variety series category was necessary, given the decline in submissions as networks and streamers scale back on their talk and sketch show ambitions. Last year, the talk category only fronted three nominees, while scripted variety had just two. That wasn’t sustainable.

The problem with the talk and scripted variety (and before that, sketch) categories is that these types of shows are often so different: What Jimmy Fallon does on “Tonight” is not comparable to John Oliver on “Last Week Tonight.” And “Saturday Night Live” is apples to their oranges. Hence the Academy’s decision to stick for years with the imperfect status quo until it finally made this change.

Still, the result is something just as clunky. The new combined category will consist of two separate talk and scripted variety “tracks,” with the number of nominations for each track determined by the number of respective submissions received. In announcing the rule, the Academy conceded that had the change been implemented last year, not much would have been different: The three talk shows and two scripted variety shows would still have been nominated, just in the same category. This year, if submissions continue to drop, the category may be down to just four nominees.