Television Academy Opens Door for ‘Performer’ Emmy, and Solves the Documentary Double-Dipping Conundrum For Good

Normal People swept the board at the Irish Film & Television Academy Awards on Sunday night, taking home nine prizes including a Best Actor gong for Paul Mescal. The TV programme, based on Sally Rooney's book of the same name, starred Paul and Daisy Edgar-Jones as two lovestruck teenagers, and became a massive hit across the globe.

K.J.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeGreetings from Variety Awards Headquarters! Today is June 28, 2021, which means nomination-round voting ends TODAY. Get your votes in! Meanwhile, it’s 15 days until nominations are announced on July 13; 52  days until final-round voting starts on Aug.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeThe Daytime Emmys aren’t over yet.

Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak brought the silky smooth sounds of Silk Sonic to the 2021 BET Awards. The pair took the stage to perform their song “Leave the Door Open” — and left the audience at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater and fans at home totally impressed.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeThe National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is handing out the awards for this year’s broadcast portion of the 48th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, airing on CBS.Among the big winners: “Jeopardy!” once again picked up award for best game show. Executive producer Mike Richards dedicated the award to late host Alex Trebek.“We’ve heard from so many of you since he passed and we know how much he meant to you,” Richards said.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargePlaying John Brown in Showtime’s limited series “The Good Lord Bird” required an intensity from star and executive producer Ethan Hawke that pushed him to his limits. “It was the first time I knew what having a heart attack might feel like,” Hawke told Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeIt was a treat, and stirred the internet as we had hoped. It also came at the start of a yearlong nostalgia binge, as the casts and producers of shows both big and obscure came together, mostly over Zoom, to reminisce and give all of us a little much-needed pick-me-up.

Mary J. Blige stuns in a silver dress as she arrives at the premiere of her documentary, Mary J. Blige’s My Life, held at the Rose Theater at Lincoln Center on Wednesday night (June 23) in New York City.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeThe National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences is prepping for a return to normalcy in 2022, including a live, in-person Daytime Emmys at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. But that’s next year.

The Television Academy has announced a rule change that will affect the acting categories at the Emmy Awards, starting with the 2021 ceremony this year.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeThe loophole that allowed docs to somehow compete in both Oscars and Emmys was always a bit bizarre. It couldn’t happen in scripted, where the rules have been ironclad: If you were released theatrically first, you’re a movie; if you’re on television, you’re, well, TV.In documentary, though, it’s often TV outlets such as HBO, PBS or Nat Geo commissioning and funding the projects to air on their networks — making them, arguably, TV projects.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeThe Television Academy first expanded the short form categories in 2016, buoyed by the promise of original fare from Maker Studios, Fullscreen, AwesomenessTV, YouTube Red, Adult Swim and others. Maker and Fullscreen basically don’t exist anymore, and the excitement of the short form races has perhaps further cooled after the Quibi debacle.

EastEnders fans praised Dani Dyer for her performance in a labour scene as she starred opposite her father Danny Dyer in Tuesday night's episode of the hit soap. The former Love Island winner, 24, played the role of a pregnant taxi driver called Jeanette who picked up Mick Carter, played by Dani's dad Danny, 43, from Albert Square minutes before her waters broke.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeGreetings from Variety Awards Headquarters! Today is June 14, 2021, which means it’s 3 days until nomination-round voting starts on June 17; 11 days until the Daytime Emmys telecast on June 25; 14 days until nomination-round voting ends on June 28; 29 days until nominations are announced on July 13; 66 days until final-round voting starts on Aug. 19; and 97 days until the Primetime Emmys telecast on Sept.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeThe anthology Emmy category only lasted a year, but a variation of “outstanding dramatic program,” which mostly recognized individual episodes of anthologies such as “Hallmark Hall of Fame,” continued until the 1970s.Now, we’re in a new age of anthologies, spurred by filmmakers eager to tell their stories in episodic fashion (yes, I know, I grit my teeth every time another director claims they’re actually making a series of movies, or one 10-hour film,

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large“SNL” has undergone plenty of cast changes in its nearly five decades on the air. Nonetheless, its evolution always conjures questions about the fate of the show, especially if executive producer Lorne Michaels ever retires.