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Television Academy Merges Categories for Variety Series Emmys

1/29/2026

Summary

Story summary

The Television Academy merged the Outstanding Scripted Variety Series and Outstanding Talk Series into Outstanding Variety Series, effective immediately.
The change follows declining submissions and allows multiple winners under a voting system.
Nominees are judged individually, and any achieving 90% approval receives an Emmy if others fail to meet the threshold.
The Academy will track submissions and may split categories again if both reach 20 submissions.

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Story summary

The Television Academy merged the Outstanding Scripted Variety Series and Outstanding Talk Series into Outstanding Variety Series, effective immediately.
The change follows declining submissions and allows multiple winners under a voting system.
Nominees are judged individually, and any achieving 90% approval receives an Emmy if others fail to meet the threshold.
The Academy will track submissions and may split categories again if both reach 20 submissions.