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
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
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)
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
Dr. John Leverence on the issue with guest actors and the eligibility rules around their eligibility for Emmy nominations
Dr. John Leverence on the issues surrounding the category of supporting player in long-form and the issues surrounding the so-called "Ellen Burstyn Rule" (Ed. note: Dr. Leverence would like to note he misspoke here and meant Ellen Burstyn, not Ellen Barkin)
Dr. John Leverence on which Television Academy rules he personally lobbied to change after so many years administering the Emmys
Dr. John Leverence on the Television Academy Rule of 14 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
Dr. John Leverence on the 2009 decision to expand the main Primetime Emmy categories beyond five nominees
Dr. John Leverence on the issues arising from the same individual winning an Emmy in the same category every year
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
Dr. John Leverence on the origin of and design of the Emmy statuette, designed by Louis McManus; on the actual weight (about six pounds) and heft of the statuette, made out of compound metal by R.S. Owens
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 - the names of the Emmy winners are first disclosed when the envelopes are opened live on the telecast
Dr. John Leverence on bearing witness through his long tenure as the Administrator of the Emmy Awards to the sheer stupor experienced by those who win an Emmy award and some of his memories of various people getting injured by the physical award statuette, and on sound editor Russ Tinsley, whose son Rusty had a prosthetic leg, winning the award and waiting for his son to put the leg back on before he would go onstage to receive the award
Dr. John Leverence on actor Jon Hamm being overwhelmed by finally winning an Emmy award after numerous nominations
Dr. John Leverence on Viola Davis winning an Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series in 2015 (for How to Get Away with Murder) as the first Black actress to win in that category
Dr. John Leverence on how the Television Academy has addressed inclusivity and avoid the kind of criticism that the #OscarsSoWhite reaction to the Motion Picture Academy's Oscar awards has experienced in recent years
Dr. John Leverence on the single-most valuable asset of the Awards department as well as his role as the Administrator of the awards: to maintain the integrity of the Emmy, and on how the administration of the award does deal with certain housekeeping measures, but the real challenge is to deal with substantive issues which, if not properly handled, may result in a diminishment of the integrity of the award
Dr. John Leverence on the importance of the Television Academy Foundation Interviews program and its extraordinary value which he believes scholars will reference for one-hundred years
Dr. John Leverence on his role as a consultant on matters of eligibility for the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards and for the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards
Dr. John Leverence on being a spectator of the Emmys -- the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards (2020) -- for the first time in forty years, and on how innovations for the ceremony might continue in subsequent years and what he enjoyed about the 2020 ceremony
Dr. John Leverence on how the Television Academy addressed matters of social justice at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards
Dr. John Leverence on the record number of Black performers to win at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards
Dr. John Leverence on Schitt's Creek sweeping the comedy category at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards
Dr. John Leverence on what did and did not work well at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards -- the trash can on fire
