Your guide to the 2021 television awards season

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Awards

Your 2021 TV Awards Season Calendar

From the eligibility cutoff to the day of the big show, here’s every important date

By Jack Smart

LAST YEAR, AGAINST ALL

odds, the Television Academy’s Emmy Awards proceeded mostly as scheduled. While COVID-19 caused the 2021 Academy Awards to adjust its timeline and the 2020 Tonys to release nominations dramatically late, television—and those who reward it—continued apace. Considering the sheer amount of small-screen content there is to consider, pandemic or no, it’s a good thing that TV contenders will get their shot at gold again in 2021.

This year’s British Academy Television Awards (hosted by Richard Ayoade) and Primetime Emmy Awards (for which a host announcement is forthcoming) are still releasing details about their 2021 ceremonies. But in the meantime, we do know the official schedules leading up to both events. Time to mark your calendar!

The BAFTA TV Awards, which released nominations on April 28, consider programming aired in the previous calendar year, with juries viewing entries throughout the spring. However, recent changes to voting procedures, designed to help BAFTA voters recognize a more diverse array of talent, signal several firsts for the organization’s 2021 awards: Performance categories have been upped from four to include six nominees, and the newly named Emerging Talent distinction is divided into fictional and factual categories, for example. Hannah Wyatt, chair of BAFTA’s Television Committee, said in a statement, “We saw significant progress in the diversity of our 2020 Television Awards, and these additional changes are designed to continue that trajectory, ensuring BAFTA champions an industry taking proactive steps to level the playing field.”

The Emmy eligibility period, June 1, 2020–May 31, 2021, remains the same as well. The Television Academy’s nominations will largely follow its usual process, with tweaks made to a handful of categories for 2021: Limited series races have been renamed to explicitly include anthology series; short-form comedy/drama series and short-form variety series have been merged into one; and individual and team stunt performers will get their own category, in addition to stunt coordinators. Also, per a Television Academy statement, “To clarify the distinction between theatrical motion pictures and television movies during the ongoing pandemic, any nondocumentary film placed on the AMPAS [Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences] viewing platform for Oscar consideration will be deemed a theatrical motion picture, and thus ineligible for the Emmy competition.”

Below are the important dates and voting windows for the TV awards season ahead. Stay tuned with Backstage’s awards coverage for more updates.

June 17–28: Nominations-round Emmy voting period

July 13: Creative Arts and Primetime Emmy Award nominations announced

Aug. 19–30: Final-round Emmy voting period

TBD: Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremonies

Sept. 20: 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony (airing on CBS)