Which 8 Emmy categories are losing nomination slots?

Voting for the 2021 Emmy Awards nominations kicked off on June 17 and the TV academy posted the roster of contenders online. We’ve done some snooping and now know how many slots there will be in all the categories when Emmy nominations are announced on July 13.

As of last year, the number of nominees per category is determined by the number of submissions, using a sliding scale (detailed below). Production delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic meant a reduction in the number of entries. In turn, the number of nominees in many categories will be pared down.

Of the 16 categories for performances across comedy, drama and limited series plus telefilms, six will have fewer nominees. Several more would have been reduced but for the rule that requires the gender-specific categories to have parity with each other. For example, Best TV Movie/Limited Supporting Actress did not have enough submissions to trigger a sixth slot this year, but still will because its male counterpart does. Likewise for Best Comedy Supporting Actress, which fell short of triggering a seventh slot.

In sum, the lead and guest acting comedy categories drop from six to five nominees while the supporting prizes will have seven contenders rather than eight. On the drama side, there were enough submissions that the lead and supporting categories stay at six and eight nominees respectively but the guest races drop to five from six. The TV movie/limited series acting categories remain the same as last year, with five lead performances and six featured to be nominated.

The comedy and drama series are guaranteed to have eight nominees but this year’s competition is reduced by 40% for comedy (from 111 to 68) and one-third for drama (from 199 to 133). Of the other program prizes, competition and variety talk series will both have five nominees again while variety sketch slips to two from three.

And while the number of competition programs is up, the submissions for reality host are down, reducing the size of that race from six to five.

PREDICT the Emmy nominees until July 13

The sliding scale is as follows:

• 0 to 7 nominees in categories with 0 to 7 submissions through a different voting process
• 2 nominees in categories with 8 to 11 submissions
• 3 nominees in categories with 12 to 15 submissions
• 4 nominees in categories with 16 to 19 submissions
• 5 nominees in categories with 20 to 80 submissions
• 6 nominees in categories with 81 to 160 submissions
• 7 nominees in category with 161 to 240 submissions
• 8 nominees in categories with at least 241 submissions, (plus Best Comedy Series and Best Drama Series)

This translates into the following number of nominees for the marquee categories (the entrant totals from last year are included in brackets for comparison purposes).

• 5 Comedy Actor slots for 56 entrants (down from 88)
• 5 Comedy Actress slots for 53 entrants (down from 86)
• 7 Comedy Supporting Actor slots for 171 entrants (down from 251)
• 7 Comedy Supporting Actress slots for 160 entrants (down from 241)
• 5 Comedy Guest Actor slots for 72 entrants (down from 148)
• 5 Comedy Guest Actress slots for 64 entrants (down from 115)

• 6 Drama Actor slots for 104 entrants (down from 142)
• 6 Drama Actress slots for 100 entrants (down from 136)
• 8 Drama Supporting Actor slots for 311 entrants (down from 455)
• 8 Drama Supporting Actress slots for 288 entrants (down from 394)
• 5 Drama Guest Actor slots for 60 entrants (down from 137)
• 5 Drama Guest Actress slots for 65 entrants (down from 109)

• 5 Limited Series slots for 37 entrants (down from 41)
• 5 TV Movie slots for 41 entrants (up from 28)
• 5 Movie/Limited Actor slots for 52 entrants (up from 45)
• 5 Movie/Limited Actress slots from 53 entrants (down from 61)
• 6 Movie/Limited Supporting Actor slots for 140 entrants (up from 123)
• 6 Movie/Limited Supporting Actress slots for 116 entrants (down from 121)

• 8 Comedy Series slots for 68 entrants (down from 111)
• 8 Drama Series slots for 133 entrants (down from 199)
• 5 Variety Talk Series slots for 20 entrants (down from 24)
• 2 Variety Sketch Series slots for 9 entrants (down from 14)
• 5 Competition Program slots for 67 entrants (up from 60)
• 5 series nominated in Best Reality Host from submissions by 75 series (down from 82)

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