Amid Controversy, TV Academy And CBS Have Reversed Decision To 'Time-Shift' Emmy Awards

In response to overwhelming industry demand, the TV academy and CBS have reversed their decision to "time-shift" several of the awards during this year's Emmy Awards ceremony. All 28 awards will now be presented live during the September 20 broadcast.

In a statement released today, TV academy Chairman/CEO John Shaffner said, "This decision was made to mend relationships within the television community and to allow executive producer Don Mischer to focus his full attention on producing the creative elements in the telecast. Our goal is to celebrate the year in television, honor excellence and this year's great achievements with the support of our industry colleagues and our telecast partner, CBS."

Gold Derby reported earlier that the "Directors Guild of America demanded that the TV academy relent or be found to be in "material breach" of an agreement promising that all prime-time Emmy Awards presented to directors be part of the live ceremony. And both the East and West Coast branches of the WGA protested this second-class treatment of their members. Both guilds planned to revoke the Emmys' access to free TV clips to use during the telecast. "

On August 4th, theatre favorite Neil Patrick Harris spoke out about the controversy over CBS' decision to "time-shift" several of the awards during this year's Emmy Awards ceremony, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Harris, who is hosting this year's cermony, recently spoke at a press conference to address the situation. "It's not like they're happening on a different evening and they're all just going to be montaged together," the actor said of the awards that will be pre-taped and aired throughout the broadcast.

Harris adds, "We're just trying to edit down the standing and the hugging and the walking down the aisle. Quite frankly, the writers' speeches are some of the best ones of the night. So we'll be able to highlight them more than anything. There's just some boring parts of that that we're just trying to trim down."

On July 29th, the Board of Governors for the Television Academy overwhelmingly voted in favor of a new production proposal for this year's Primetime Emmy Awards. Posed with a telecast that could run over due to expanding the number of nominees in 10 key awards categories, and the desire of broadcast partner CBS, show producer Don Mischer and the Television Academy to up the entertainment quotient in this year's program, the board voted to begin this year's Awards ceremony early, presenting a group of awards categories prior to the 5 PM telecast start time.

Those awards, spread over a variety of categories, will not be cut from the telecast. They will be presented in front of the full telecast audience and subsequently edited to eliminate lengthy walks to the stage and other "gaps" between the reading of nominees, winner announcements and acceptance speeches. The edited awards presentations will be rolled back into the show throughout the latter part of the telecast. Mischer and his team are currently evaluating which awards will be time shifted, but it was decided to begin the Primetime Emmy Awards at an earlier time. (The Red Carpet will be opened for arrivals beginning at 2 PM, and the awards ceremony start time is TBA.) It is anticipated that this procedure will provide ample time for Mischer to expand upon entertainment elements in the show.

The 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards will be held on September 20th on CBS-TV. Neil Patrick Harris will host the ceremony.

The Emmy® Awards recognize excellence within various areas of television and emerging media. The Emmy® Awards are administered by three sister organizations who focus on various sectors of television and broadband programming.

For our complete roundup of this year's nominees, click here.

For more information, visit www.emmys.com.