On the heels of Wednesday morning’s announcement that the Television Academy’s is adding a major new Emmy to its portfolio for the first time in nearly 20 years — the Legacy Award, which will annually go to a long-running show that has demonstrated continued or sustained relevance, influence or inspiration — The Hollywood Reporter connected with Maury McIntyre, the TV Academy‘s president and CEO, to nail down some more specifics about how it will all work.
What follows is a transcript of that conversation that has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Congratulations on the new award — it’s exciting news! I know the release specifies a certain number of episodes and time on the air that a show must have to be eligible. But would a long-running show that’s still on the air — perhaps one that hasn’t gotten much Emmy recognition, like a Grey’s Anatomy or It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia — be eligible, or is the award only for shows that are long gone?
It absolutely can go to a show that’s still on the air, or it can go to a show that hasn’t been on the air in 30 years. We really want to honor shows that have lasted and that have had impact, either culturally or on the industry, for a long time. So yes, it could go to Grey’s Anatomy for being one of the longest-running medical procedural shows on television, or it could go to Gunsmoke because it established westerns. We’re happy to do both.
Was this award created, to some degree, to right Emmy wrongs? There are some shows that certainly have had a huge impact but aren’t lacking for Emmy recognition, like Game of Thrones. And then there are shows that—
Are we trying to correct The Wire [which infamous received only two Emmy noms during its run, winning neither]? Is that what you’re asking? [laughs] That was not necessarily the intent, but it obviously is something that we see as an opportunity. I have to credit Pearlena Igbokwe [Chairman, Television Studios, NBC Entertainment & Peacock Scripted], quite honestly, for this award. Pearlena sat on our executive committee last year, but she also sat on the Hall of Fame selection committee, and she reached out to me at some point during the year and said, “Why don’t we have an award that’s kind of a Hall of Fame for programs?” That was more the impetus. We thought, “Wow, we don’t recognize programs that have had a long-lasting impact,” and it was a bit of a no-brainer for the awards committee and for the board to say, “Yeah, we should do something like this.” So the answer is yes, we can certainly use this sometimes as an opportunity to rectify a wrong if we feel a show didn’t get the Emmy love that it should have. That wasn’t necessarily the impetus, but it’s a happy byproduct.
When this award is given to a show, who will actually leave with an Emmy statuette? Is it the creator? The showrunner? The network?
It goes to the creator/creators, plus up to an additional four showrunners who the Academy has determined played a significant role in the longevity of the show. And it will go to the network partner that aired the show for the majority of its run.
So just to confirm, if it did go to, say, The Wire, the principal actors, like Dominic West and Idris Elba, would not be taking home statuettes, but David Simon would?
Correct. We would hope that Dominic and Idris would be there for the giving of it because it is an award for the show, and their work as well. But the physical award would be going to David Simon.
Which is essentially what would have happened if the show had won the best drama series Emmy?
Correct. It would have gone to the showrunners.
I see that you guys are reserving the right to present the Legacy Award on the Primetime Emmys telecast, on the Creative Arts Emmys telecast, at the Televerse festival or at the Hall of Fame ceremony. How much of a consideration was it that you do now have a whole Televerse festival that requires content to draw in people, versus wanting to add to a Primetime telecast that is already quite—?
Quite robust? [laughs] We feel like we have a number of platforms where we might bestow the award, and we are reserving the right to be flexible with that. If this year, for some reason, the award goes to an NBC staple, and we’re on the NBC network with the Emmys, it might make sense to give that award during the Emmys because NBC is celebrating 100 years and we’d be celebrating one of their long-running shows. But we might say, “We’d rather actually do it with the Hall of Fame, because it also makes sense to do that.” It’s basically the same thing we do with the Governors Award and the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award — they’re sometimes in the Creative Arts, they’re sometimes in the telecast, and the Bob Hope has been given out, other than last year, more recently at the Hall of Fame ceremony.
Shows will be nominated for the Legacy Award by the governors awards committee, which is being renamed the special awards committee. That’s a committee of governors from within the larger board of governors?
Correct. It’s generally between 10 and 15 governors. Their names are not made public.
But the release seems to be saying that in addition to the members of the board and the special committee, members of the public can also send in letters nominating shows for the Legacy Award. How do they know who to send them to?
They would just be contacting the Television Academy. In principal, we’re not expecting that the public will do it, but we’re open to our network partners submitting names and saying, “This is a really important show and we think it’s worthy of consideration.” That would come in to me or the awards department, and we would share those writeups with the special awards committee. That’s the same thing that happens with the Governors Award and the Bob Hope. We’re open to having people suggest who should get the Governors Award and the Bob Hope; then it goes to that committee; that committee evaluates it; then they make a selection and basically chose nominees, if you will, that go to the board; and then the board ultimately votes on who will receive that award.
Can you give us an estimate of when the announcement of who’s receiving this award might come?
It’s generally going to be about the same time that we’ve done the announcements for the Governors Award and the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award. We’ll know them at approximately the same time. Then it just becomes about, “When are we going to give the award?” We have to make that decision before we announce it. “Have we contacted the people who are receiving it?” We need to actually get the press release done. But August is probably the general time when it will be announced, at least a month before any of the showcases — unless it’s going to be given out at the Hall of Fame ceremony, in which case we’ll do it by July.
The Bob Hope Humanitarian Award has always gone to a person or organization, but the Governors Award has sometimes gone to a TV show, like Star Trek and American Idol. How will the Legacy Award affect the Governors Award?
One of the things we really liked, when deciding to do this, was it helps us to clarify better what the Governors Award is. Within the specific rules around the Legacy Award, we say that if a show has won a Governors Award previously, it is not eligible for the Legacy Award, because essentially that’s what it was at that point. So Star Trek was given, essentially, the Legacy Award; it was just given it under the auspices of the Governors Award. We have refined what the Governors Award is now for. The Governors Award is really supposed to go to individuals, organizations, and possibly a program, that has transformed the industry in some way. So in that way, it’s very different from what we’re looking at with the Legacy Award, which is for a longlasting program which has had a longlasting impact. That’s how we’re going to look at it moving forward.
Would it be illogical to think that the Legacy Award could go to the The Late Show, which is going off the air in May?
It could absolutely go to The Late Show if the board and the committee felt that that was the show that was worthy right now and wanted to honor it because it’s going off the air. That is the kind of thing that we’re looking at. Another thing that we’re looking at is that this is a good opportunity for us to recognize shows celebrating some kind of an anniversary.
And you don’t sit there and say, “This year’s Emmys will be on NBC, so it would be awkward to give it to a show that’s on CBS”?
We are very careful about distancing ourselves between those two things. The committee is told very specifically that it is not a consideration which broadcast network we are on. If it works out, we think it’s great. But the broadcast partners have been okay celebrating these types of things — like, CBS was happy to celebrate SNL‘s 50th last year, and we’ve done the same sort of thing with ABC. They recognize that the Emmys is a celebration of all of television.