Over the 46 years since the acrimonious divorce of the two groups behind the Emmys, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS, or the TV Academy, which now presides over the Primetime Emmys) and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS, which now presides over the Daytime, Children’s & Family, News & Documentary and Technology & Engineering Emmys), the relationship between the two organizations has been frosty, to say the least.
But the further that the disputes that led to their separation have faded into the past, and given that the parties in this divorce share custody of a precious child — namely, the world-famous Emmy statuette — the leaders of both organizations have become increasingly interested in coordination and collaboration, if not remarriage just yet, they told The Hollywood Reporter and Variety during a virtually unprecedented joint interview earlier this week.
“The last five years, the trajectory has been the most positive, I think, in the history of both academies,” Adam Sharp, the president and CEO of NATAS, said. “It has been one that was set from the top by Frank Scherma, the chairman of the Television Academy, now outgoing after the recent elections, and Terry O’Reilly, our chairman, all the way down through every level of the organization.”
He continued, “There’s only Emmy, and we share the same ideals, we share the same missions and we all need to be on the same page in service of that mission, not constantly squabbling. I think over the decades past we lost sight of that. But the last five years have really been a reinvigoration of that shared mission.”
Maury McIntyre, the president and CEO of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, concurred. “It wasn’t really until we had such great partners in Adam and Terry that we were able to get beyond some of the history that has just been rife on both sides,” he explained. “I think there’s just been mistrust from both sides because of things that have happened since the 1977 divorce, which was not a pretty divorce; it was one of those in which people went down screaming and fighting. But, as he said, there’s one Emmy and it is our job to protect the integrity of that statuette and the prestige of that statuette. And to do that, it would be far better for us to make sure that we are moving forward together.”
Over the last few years, and more than ever since the SAG-AFTRA strike forced both organizations to reevaluate the dates of their televised ceremonies, McIntyre says that he and Sharp have been in “constant communication” about “how we do awards, how we expand awards, the rules that we are all trying to live by and what our plans are.”
Asked why, then, the two organizations don’t come together again as one, McIntyre indicated openness to the possibility. “My whole background is in branding,” he began, “and I will tell you yes, it is lunacy that there are so many organizations that kind of claimed the Emmy brand. That is not any way that any kind of brand professional would tell you to do. But we are in the situation we are in, so I think that is why our approach is, ‘Let’s try to treat it now as if we are at least brothers in arms, and hey, 10 years from now, maybe there will be a coalescing. That ultimately is going to be a decision made by various boards.” Sharp added, “We can say in hindsight that we both wish cooler heads had prevailed and a more thoughtful resolution to the differences of the time had been reached. But that does not necessarily mean getting mommy and daddy back together is the most effective approach at the moment.”
For now, the improved relationship between the organizations is most evident in the repositioning of certain awards categories to reflect changes in the television business. For instance, in 2020 the Primetime competition discontinued its children’s program category, enabling all kids programming to fall under the umbrella of the Daytime competition; and last year game shows were moved from the Daytime competition to the Primetime competition.
There are still some close-calls, as far as whether or not a show belongs in the Daytime competition or Primetime competition — particularly in the area of programming aimed at young adults, who could be regarded as children or adults — but those are now being addressed more efficiently than they used to be. “We have a very robust process now between the two academies,” Sharp explains. “When something comes in that’s on the bubble, the two awards teams meet with each other. They discuss it. If it’s still a little unresolved, we have a process where a panel gets formed, with representatives of both communities, to really look at the content and decide. And then, if we start to see a pattern of ‘Oh, they always fall this way,’ that’s logic that can work its way back into the rulebook.”
One of the remaining gray areas involves documentaries. The Primetime competition includes documentary/nonfiction series, documentary/nonfiction special and hosted nonfiction series or special categories, plus a juried exceptional merit in documentary filmmaking award. But NATAS has an entire ceremony that is largely devoted to docs, the News & Documentary Emmys. “We just haven’t come to a resolution yet as to what that should look like,” McIntyre acknowledged.
Sharp also noted that beginning in 2024, NATAS will be adopting a new governing structure modeled after the one employed by ATAS, which divvies its members into peer groups reflecting their professions. NATAS has long been comprised of 19 regional chapters spread across America, which have been collectively represented on a 54-member board of trustees.
“To date,” he explained, “there has not been a way to be a member of NATAS, the national organization, directly, without going through the chapters,” he explained. “On January 1, we will be switching to a new governing model, which will be a board of directors that will eventually be elected through a national membership organized by peer groups, similar to the Television Academy. So for the first time, if you work in the sports community nationally, you’ll be able to become a member of NATAS and if you work in the national news community, you’ll be able to become a member of NATAS. That you’ve never been able to do before. And you will be able to vote for the board leadership of the organization, and that board leadership will be made up of national representatives of the peer groups that we honor with our competitions.”
As NATAS enacts that change, Sharp and McIntyre intend to remain closely in touch. “For those areas where we have overlap — the TV Academy has a daytime peer group, a children’s peer group and a documentary peer group — we will be working together to align on how those members can be members of the peer groups of both organizations,” Sharp assured. “That’s a conversation Maury and I have already started.”
In the meantime, as NATAS transitions to its new governing structure, both Sharp and McIntyre can’t help but marvel at how far the dynamic between the two bodies has come. “There will be an interim board in place that comes from the national community,” Sharp says, “and, in fact, two of those interim board members come from having had long careers on the board of the Television Academy — Bob Bowdon and Eva Basler, both from the daytime community. I think if you had a time machine and could go back to some of my and Maury’s predecessors and say, “The day will come when we are exchanging board members,” I think there’d be a few who would be horrified — but it’s a sign of the progress we have made.”
Interview lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
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