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Dr. John Leverence on the ballot and voting process and how the accounting firm Ernst & Young is able to keep the names of the winners secret until they are announced on the telecast 03:15
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Genre: Awards Shows
Dr. John Leverence on John Moffitt, an Emmy-award winning director, who made the appeal to the Academy Board of Governors to allow cable television shows, such as those on HBO, to be eligible for an Emmy Award 04:36
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Person: John Moffitt
Dr. John Leverence on the Emmys cutoff rule that almost made the final season of The Sopranos ineligible for an Emmy Award until the year after it aired and how the award year eligibility calendar always will result in some "orphan shows", and on how then-HBO chairman Chris Albrecht appealed to the Television Academy Awards Department for an accommodation which was made to allow the show to be eligible for an Emmy in its final year 02:33
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Person: Chris Albrecht
Dr. John Leverence on how and when the names of the winners get affixed to the actual Emmy statuette: since no one knows the names of the winners in advance, all the nominees' names are actually engraved on plates in advance, the non-winning nameplates are disposed of and the winners can now watch their plate get bolted to the statuette the night of the Emmys 05:40
Interview: Dr. John Leverence
Dr. John Leverence on the ballot and voting process and how the accounting firm Ernst & Young is able to keep the names of the winners secret until they are announced live on the telecast 03:15
Interview: Dr. John Leverence
Dr. John Leverence on the Emmys cutoff rule that almost made the final season of The Sopranos ineligible for an Emmy Award until the year after it aired and how the award year eligibility calendar always will result in some "orphan shows", and on how then-HBO chairman Chris Albrecht appealed to the Television Academy Awards Department for an accommodation which was made to allow the show to be eligible for an Emmy in its final year 02:32
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Sopranos, The
Dr. John Leverence on the impact of allowing cable to compete in the Primetime Emmy Awards after an appeal by director John Moffitt led to a review of the definition of "national broadcasting", and on how at the time, national broadcasting was then-defined by having a presence in homes of over 50% of the United States -- the definition was modified to include audience numbers of "homes passed" (meaning the program was available to them) rather than "homes entered," making HBO and other cable networks qualified for Emmy eligibility for the first time 05:08
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on the similarities between the issues faced by both the Television Academy and the Motion Picture Academy in their approaches to categorizing eligibility for content that is niche programming, not mass-marketed to the general public, and how this impacts viewership of the programs 02:41
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on the "gentlemen's agreement" that used to exist among the networks not to air competing content during the Emmys telecast, and on why the Emmys telecast is scheduled in September on the Sunday night before the Fall television season began, and why that is irrelevant now 03:11
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on Emmys category classifications and changes, such as with the program Shameless which had elements of both comedy and drama categories, and how the show's producers appealed to change the classification to a comedy 02:28
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on Emmys category classifications and changes, such as with the program Shameless which had elements of both comedy and drama categories, and how the show's producers appealed to change the classification to a comedy 02:28
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Shameless
Dr. John Leverence on the Emmys cutoff rule that almost made the final season of The Sopranos ineligible for an Emmy until the year after it aired and how the award year eligibility calendar always will result in some "orphan shows", and on how then-HBO chairman Chris Albrecht appealed to the Television Academy Awards Department for an accommodation which was made to allow the show to be eligible for an Emmy in its final year 02:32
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on the classification of a program for the Emmys based on its running time - if a program is 30 minutes it is considered a comedy and if it is 60 minutes it is considered a drama, and on the process by which programs that wish to change categories submit a number of the show's episodes to an "Industry Panel" (an anonymous group of high-level programming executives) 01:01
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on the ambiguity surrounding how programs are categorized, and on the issues surrounding the classification of the documentary Surviving R. Kelly as a documentary rather than as an informational series, resulting in a review by the peer group of the guidelines defining the category 00:55
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on the issue with guest actors and the rules around their eligibility for Emmy nominations and the effect of high-profile performers such as on these categories, and on the situation when Peter MacNicol was nominated in the guest actor category for Veep, but was ultimately deemed ineligible because he appeared in more than 50% of the total show, violating the Academy's rules for guest actors 03:36
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on the issues surrounding the Emmys category of a supporting player in longform, the so-called "Ellen Burstyn Rule" (Ed. note: Dr. Leverence would like to note he misspoke here and meant Ellen Burstyn, not Ellen Barkin), which states that the actor appear on-screen in no less than 5% of total running time to qualify, and on how the Academy defines "on-screen" 02:59
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on the importance of the rules of the Emmy Awards being transparent, on the difficulties in processing the nominations to check eligibility and how 75% of the Television Academy Awards staff's time is spent on checking eligibility in preparing the Emmy ballots, and on issues surrounding the eligibility of "consulting producers" and how award eligibility decisions are appealed, and on the limited number of eligible persons per category per show and an issue in 2019 with a show that had people who were both talent and producers but the producer credit was a vanity credit and did not qualify under the Academy guidelines, and on the basic principle that a person can only win one Emmy for doing one role on a show 08:31
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on which Television Academy rules he personally lobbied to change after so many years administering the Emmys - such as giving the Engineering Awards their own awards show rather than being included in the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, and on drafting the argument for including casting as its own Emmy award category, and on how stunt coordination became an Emmy category 02:46
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on the Televison Academy Rule of 14 - "the lungs of the competition" - where if in two consecutive years a category has fewer than 14 Emmy nominations, the Television Academy Board votes on whether to discontinue the category or merge it with another, such as the miniseries category 01:39
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on the 2009 decision to expand the main Primetime Emmy award categories beyond five nominees, and the issues arising from too many awards and overlapping awards, and on an instance with apparent "tiering" where you had an award for lead actor in a drama series as well as overall best actor in a drama series and why that can be detrimental to the awards 03:30
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on the issues arising from the same individual winning and Emmy in the same category every year, and on how Jean Stapleton declined to be nominated after winning lead actress in a comedy series (for All in the Family) multiple times 01:46
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on serving as the executive producer on the Television Academy Creative Arts Awards, and on how the decisions were made around which awards would be awarded during the Primetime Emmy Awards, and which would be awarded during the Creative Arts Emmy Awards 06:14
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on the "wheel" which established the Emmy Awards show as a pan-industry event by showcasing it on a different network each year on a revolving basis, and the lingering question of how this might work with different platforms in the future, and on how the networks are selected through the "wheel" process 09:24
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on the platinum age of television and the impact of then-current quality of shows being produced and the importance of the Television Academy and the Emmy Awards in celebrating that excellence 01:37
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on how and when the names of the winners get affixed to the actual Emmy statuette - since no one knows the names of the winners in advance, all the nominees' names are actually engraved on plates in advance then the non-winning plates are disposed of and the winners' names are affixed to the statuette 02:01
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on the origin of and design of the Emmy statuette, designed by Louis McManus, and on the actual weight (about six pounds) and heft of the statuette, made out of compound metal by R.S. Owens 03:39
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on the ballot and voting process for the Emmy Awards and how the accounting firm Ernst & Young is able to keep the names of the winners secret - the names of the Emmy winners are only first disclosed when the envelopes are opened live on the telecast 03:15
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Show: Emmy Awards, The (Primetime and Daytime)
Dr. John Leverence on the Emmys "cutoff rule" that almost made the final season of The Sopranos ineligible for nomination until the year after it aired, and how then-HBO chairman Chris Albrecht appealed to the Television Academy Awards department and the accommodation was made to allow the show to be eligible for an Emmy in its final year 02:32
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Topic: Emmy Awards
Dr. John Leverence on Emmy category classifications and changes, such as with the program Shameless which had elements of both comedy and drama categories, and how the show's producers appealed to change the classification to a comedy 02:28
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Topic: Emmy Awards
John Leverence on the classification of a program for the Emmys based on its running time - if a program is 30 minutes it is considered a comedy and if it is 60 minutes it is considered a drama, and on the process by which programs that wish to change categories submit a number of the show's episodes to an "Industry Panel" (an anonymous group of high-level programming executives) 01:01
Interview: Dr. John Leverence | Topic: Emmy Awards