If you’re in Los Angeles, you have seen the ads, heard about the FYC events—driven at this point entirely by below-the-line nominees—starting to get off the ground. Actors’ press completed before the strike is still making its way online, predictions are circulating and being debated, and the voting calendar for Television Academy members remains unchanged. By all accounts, given the seismic disruptions caused by the dual SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, Emmy season is feeling oddly business as usual.
But with one huge caveat: Instead of being one month away, the Emmy Awards are now officially undated—with all indications pointing to a four-month postponement, into the beginning of 2024. The Emmys always struggle to make noise, relative to the Oscars, in the greater Hollywood landscape, as the ceremony arrives after a drawn-out second phase and smack in the middle of fall festivals—better known as the period of Oscar season when everything still feels fresh and exciting. This time around, they will have a lot more to compete with.
Put bluntly, the 2023 (slash 2024?) Emmys are going to feel especially weird. It’s not like promotion will get extended in line with the broadcast’s date shift. At the end of August, when voting on the winners concludes, Hollywood will completely cease any talk of TV’s biggest night. Strategists will have no strategy left to map out, talent no talking points left to promote. The results of the Emmys will sit with the relevant accountants, untouched, for months. When the show finally airs, it’ll likely be in January, the same month as the Critics Choice Awards and Golden Globes. Those latter awards shows, however, will be honoring movies from the past year, as well as much newer TV.
Take the example of The Bear, FX/Hulu’s breakout sophomore hit. Star Jeremy Allen White will likely win the comedy-lead-acting Emmy for season one, which aired way back in the summer of 2022, within weeks of taking the Globe and/or Critics Choice Award for the show’s second season, which aired this past June and is eligible for Emmy consideration next year. Most viewers and even some voters probably won’t realize this, at least; it’s to the Emmys’ benefit that its ineligible second season will keep it relatively relevant. But still: Weird!
And what of so many other shows? Drama series nominees House of the Dragon, The White Lotus, Better Call Saul, Andor, Wednesday, and Obi-Wan Kenobi will have all been off the air for well over a year by the time the Emmys happen. Should they win, acting front-runners like Jessica Chastain (George & Tammy), Paul Walter Hauser (Black Bird), and Niecy Nash-Betts (Dahmer) will take the stage about a year after previously winning SAG or Critics Choice Awards for the same roles. Such a delayed embrace would feel especially stark as the awards shows surrounding the Emmys are set to honor TV and performances that’ll be only a few months old.
On its face, this puts the Emmys in a difficult spot at a difficult moment, given the scrutiny over awards-show ratings and general decline of network television. The ceremony is typically broadcast on a different major channel every year, with Fox taking the reins this time around. The Emmys rarely honor broadcast shows, with notable exceptions like Abbott Elementary, and offer these channels fewer benefits in the current, segmented viewership era. And this is all assuming that the strikes are even over by January, and that the stars that the show so desperately needs will be able to walk the carpet, participate in corny bits, and accept their gold trophies.
With the SAG Awards moving to Netflix and other awards shows potentially following suit, all this may contribute to an acceleration of the Emmys’ evolution. There’s no reason to expect business as usual because, frankly, it’s not. Whoever hosts can more sharply call out the bizarre dynamics. The ceremony can function as a preview of what is to come as much of a look back at the year’s (or year before’s) TV. Perhaps room could, or should, be made for a little more pizzazz. For an awards show notoriously averse to change, then, here’s some inspiration. Many of these winners will, fairly or not, feel a little bit like an afterthought. It’s on the Television Academy to tell us why else to tune in.
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