After FX’s American Horror Story competed at the Primetime Emmys for seven years as a limited series, recent reports suggest that it has now been shifted to the outstanding drama categories, which is what should have been done years ago.
Besides American Horror Story, the Television Academy announced earlier this week that two other series that previously entered as limited series, USA’s The Sinner and Netflix’s American Vandal, would also compete in traditional series categories.
The Sinner has now been shifted from limited series to drama, while American Vandal has been re-categorized as comedy, due to continuing narratives and roles actors embodied from previous seasons.
“The Television Academy said the reclassifications were ‘due to continuing story threads, characters and actors reprising those same character roles from previous seasons’,” reported Deadline. “The ruling is final, after the shows’ respective network/studios had petitioned to compete in limited series categories.”
But, the organisation added that “‘this re-categorization is effective for the 71st Emmy Awards competition only’. That means, should the next seasons of those shows feature completely different stories with brand-new characters, they might once again be able to compete as limited series.”
Noted Variety: “The move shifts all three shows into much more competitive drama and comedy series categories, which may hinder their ability to score nominations. American Horror Story, in particular, has helped give FX a major nomination haul and won multiple times over the years.
American Horror Story: Cult received seven nominations last year; Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, and James Cromwell are among the performers who have won for the show’s various installments over the years.
American Horror Story has also been nominated as outstanding miniseries (which became the limited series category) four times.”
For this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards, the TV Academy has defined a “limited series as a program with two (2) or more episodes with a total running time of at least 150 program minutes that tells a complete, non-recurring story, and does not have an on-going storyline and/or main characters in subsequent seasons.”
According to Variety, the realignment affects only the upcoming 71st Emmy Awards, which is scheduled to take place on September 22, with each series remaining eligible to return to the limited series category, given they meet the eligibility requirements of future seasons.
–With information from Variety and Deadlin