We love television at The Reid Effect! Everything from witty writing to engaging commercials and inspiring cinematography gets us jazzed. In less than a month the Television Academy will come together for it’s 68th annual celebration of the past year’s best and most talented in the television industry. You’re probably familiar with the awards show airing on ABC but do you know how an Emmy Award winner is actually chosen? Did you know there are more than twice as many categories awarded the night before on September 17th for the Creative Arts Emmys? Of course, we won’t miss the winners awarded in primetime but let’s take a quick look at the process of choosing an Emmy winner and some of the often overlooked, yet essential, categories for creating great television!
First, A Little History
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences was founded in the early days of the television industry to be a place for discussing all aspects of television and TV production. Started by Syd Cassyd in 1946, the organization focused on the exchange of ideas and fostering regular discussion among TV professionals within their related peer groups–actors, directors, producers, set designers, cinematographers, writers, etc. around the craft of creating television content.
Named after the image-orthicon camera tube, the very first “Immy” or, as it has since been spelled, “Emmy” was presented in 1949 for Outstanding Personality to Shirley Dinsdale. Through the years this organization has become both a place for celebrating outstanding achievements as well as a forum for serious discussion within the television industry.
How Is An Emmy Won?
First, nominees are submitted from the more than 20,000 voting members of the Television Academy in both program and peer group categories. Then that large group of submissions are voted on to determine the final Emmy Nominees in each category. Next the final round of voting takes place from mid July to late August. The ballots are tallied, verified and sealed by an independent accounting firm and hand delivered to the awards ceremonies on September 17th & 18th. The Television Academy has a fun, interactive infographic of the whole process on their website.
VIEW THE INFOGRAPHIC: HOW AN EMMY IS WON
Now that we know a little more about who awards the Emmy’s and how the process works, what else are we missing? We won’t spend time on the various lead and supporting actor and actress categories because, let’s face it, we’re all going to watch those. Rather, we want to highlight a few of the lesser known categories that might get overlooked.
Here are a few of the many categories to watch for the winners along with links to the 2016 nominees:
- OUTSTANDING SOUND EDITING FOR A SERIES
- OUTSTANDING COMMERCIAL
- OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A NONFICTION PROGRAM
- OUTSTANDING MAIN TITLE DESIGN
- OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A NONFICTION PROGRAM
- OUTSTANDING MAKEUP FOR A MULTI-CAMERA SERIES OR SPECIAL (NON-PROSTHETIC)