Ready or Not, the Emmys Are Coming

Weeks before the Academy Awards, tracking begins for the shows that will campaign for Emmys. Emmys occur in September, but preparation starts months earlier through luncheons, billboards, screenings, and Q&As. May functions like Oscar-season December for television because streamers release shows ahead of the May 31 eligibility deadline. Cable and broadcast networks plan around their weekly fall-to-spring schedules. The period feels TV-heavy because marketing teams rely on recency bias to help contenders stand out. The number of shows is slightly lower due to streaming consolidation. The Emmy race centers on major legacy studios and their streaming services, including Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery, Universal, Apple TV, Netflix, and Prime Video. Nominations differ from Oscars by including more contenders across categories and actors.

"Weeks before the Academy Awards took place on March 15, I began tracking the dozens of shows that would soon be campaigning for Emmys. The Emmys take place each year in September, but like its cinematic counterpart, the preparation begins many months earlier. After all, Oscar futures are currently being debated as Cannes rolls into its second week. Similarly, the Emmy luncheons, billboards, screenings, and Q&As have been in the works for a long time already."

"May is essentially Oscar-season December for television, with (mostly) the streamers rushing out their shows ahead of the Emmys' May 31 eligibility deadline. (The cable and broadcast networks, releasing their episodes weekly throughout the traditional fall-to-spring season, planned ahead.) If the last few months have felt particularly TV-heavy, that's why; just as the consensus dictates that fall film releases are a boon for Oscar consideration, the marketing and PR teams working on this spring's numerous television shows hope that a similar recency bias will help their projects cut through the crowded field of contenders."

"There are a smidge fewer shows on television now thanks to the Streaming Wars, which did not wrap up with any winners but rather a lot of corporate consolidation in Hollywood. The Emmy race is, essentially, a competition between a few legacy studios in Disney (which owns ABC, Fox, FX, and Hulu), Paramount (CBS, Paramount+, Showtime), Warner Bros. Discovery (HBO and HBO Max) and Universal (Bravo, NBC, Peacock)-plus their streaming counterparts in Apple TV, Netflix, and Prime Video. So, a lot of familiar faces from Oscar season."

"First, obviously, is the number of contenders-not just the shows, but the actors, too. While the Oscars only nominate five films in each category (s"

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