The Television Academy announced rules changes on Wednesday impacting both the 77th Emmy Awards and the 78th in 2025 and 2026, respectively. For this year, the changes expand eligibility in the directing category and redefine eligibility for guest performers, while next year’s changes impact casting and music.
The guest performer change closes a loophole that permitted actors to be nominated in multiple categories for playing the same role in the same series. One example was Claire Foy, who was Emmy nominated as Best Lead Drama Actress for The Crown for her role as Queen Elizabeth II in 2017 and who won as lead in 2018. She then won the Guest Actress in a Drama Series trophy in 2021 for the same role on the same show and received another nomination in that category for playing the Queen in 2024.
A second example involves the late Ron Cephas Jones, who was nominated as Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for This Is Us in 2017 and won as Guest Actor in the same role the following year. He subsequently received another pair of bids as a guest performer in 2019 and 2020 for playing the This Is Us character.
Under the new directing rule, directors and directing teams will now be permitted to submit multiple episodes from different programs effective this year, rather than being limited to a single entry in each category. This gives directors the flexibility to submit two or even more entries in the same calendar year for different shows if they believe them all to be worthy.
Here is the official wording on the changes for the 77th Emmy competition this year:
Guest Performer Eligibility
If a performer has been nominated or had won in a lead or supporting performer category, the performer will not be eligible to submit in a guest performer category in a subsequent Emmy year for playing the same character role in the same series. They may, however, continue to enter in a lead or supporting category.
Directing
An eligible individual or the identical team may now enter multiple achievements per category if the achievements are for different programs. Previously, directors were allowed to submit only one entry per category. The change will allow the director to submit an episode from each of the programs they directed.
The additional rules changes for the 2026 Emmys are as follows:
Casting
To streamline the number of reality casting titles that are eligible for Emmy consideration, the following titles will be eligible starting with the 2026 Emmy competition:
Music – Main Title Theme
A main title theme must appear in 50% or more of eligible episodes submitted for the 2026 Emmy competition. The main title theme has been further defined as a musical fingerprint and calling card that is identifiable and unique to a show, thereby drawing an audience in by setting the show’s tone and what is to come.
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