Emmy Awards facts for kids

The Emmy Awards, often just called Emmys, are a group of awards given for amazing work in the American and international television industry. Think of them like the Oscars for movies or the Grammys for music, but for TV shows!

Many different Emmy Award ceremonies happen each year. Each one has its own rules and categories. The two most famous events are the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Daytime Emmy Awards. These celebrate the best TV shows that air in the evening (primetime) and during the day (daytime) in America.

Other important U.S. Emmy awards include the Children's & Family Emmy Awards for shows made for kids and families. There are also the Sports Emmy Awards for sports programs, and News & Documentary Emmy Awards for news and documentary shows. Awards for new technology in TV are also given out.

You can also find Regional Emmy Awards across the country. These awards celebrate excellent local TV shows. Plus, the International Emmy Awards honor great TV shows made outside the United States.

The Emmy statue is a winged woman holding an atom. It was named after "immy," a nickname for a special camera part used in early TV. The Emmy is one of the four biggest entertainment awards in America. The others are the Grammy for music, the Oscar for movies, and the Tony for Broadway plays.

Three related groups give out the Emmys. These are the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), and the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (IATAS). Each group manages certain Emmy Award ceremonies. The ATAS gave out the first Emmys in 1949 for shows made in Los Angeles. In the 1950s, it became a national event. Over time, all three groups expanded the awards to cover more parts of the TV world.

History of the Emmy Awards

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) in Los Angeles started the Emmy Award. They wanted to build a good image for TV. The first Emmy ceremony happened on January 25, 1949. It was held at the Hollywood Athletic Club. At first, it only honored shows made and aired in the Los Angeles area. Shirley Dinsdale won the very first Emmy for "Most Outstanding Television Personality." The name "Emmy" came from "Immy," which was slang for a TV camera part called an image orthicon tube.

In the 1950s, the ATAS made the Emmys a national event. This meant it honored shows aired all over the United States. In 1955, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) was formed in New York City. It was a sister group to help TV professionals on the East Coast. The ATAS kept its own ceremony for Los Angeles shows. The NATAS started local chapters across the U.S., each with its own local Emmy ceremony.

At first, there was only one Emmy event each year for national shows. In 1974, the first Daytime Emmy ceremony was held. It was specifically for national daytime shows. Other special Emmy events soon followed. The International Emmy Awards, for TV shows made outside the U.S., started in the early 1970s.

In 1977, the ATAS and NATAS decided to work separately. They agreed to share the Emmy statue and name. Each group would be in charge of certain award events. For example, the NATAS handles the Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards. The ATAS gives out the separate Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards.

When cable television became popular in the 1980s, cable shows could also win Emmys. They became eligible for the Primetime Emmys in 1988 and the Daytime Emmys in 1989. Later, shows on streaming television also became eligible. This happened in 2013 for both Daytime and Primetime Emmys.

In 2021, the ATAS and NATAS changed how some national Emmy awards work. This was because streaming TV made it hard to tell if a show was "daytime" or "primetime." Now, the awards are based more on the type of show, not just when it airs. For example, most scripted dramas and comedies moved to the Primetime Emmys. All children's shows moved to the new Children's & Family Emmy Awards. Morning shows moved to the News & Documentary Emmys.

The Emmy Statuette

The Emmy statuette shows a winged woman holding an atom. A TV engineer named Louis McManus designed it. He used his wife as the model for the statue. The ATAS looked at 47 designs before choosing McManus's in 1948. The statue represents the TV Academy's goal to support art and science in television. The wings stand for art, and the atom stands for science.

When they were deciding on a name for the award, ATAS founder Syd Cassyd first suggested "Ike." This was a nickname for a TV camera part called an iconoscope tube. But "Ike" was also the nickname of future U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The ATAS members wanted a unique name. Finally, engineer Harry Lubcke suggested "Immy," a common term for the image orthicon tube used in early cameras. After "Immy" was chosen, they changed it to "Emmy" to match the female statue.

The Emmy statuettes are different sizes and weights for different events. A Primetime Emmy statue weighs about 6 pounds. It is made of copper, nickel, silver, and gold. It stands about 15.5 inches tall. Regional Emmy statues are a bit smaller, about 11.5 inches tall. Each statue takes about five and a half hours to make. Workers handle them with white gloves to avoid fingerprints!

The ATAS and NATAS own the "Emmy" image and name. They have strict rules about using them. For example, the Emmy statue must always face left in pictures. If you see a copyright notice for the statue, it should say "ATAS/NATAS." Even winners need permission to use the statue's image for promotions.

Types of Emmy Awards

Many different Emmy competitions happen every year. They honor everything from national TV shows to local programs. Each event has its own categories and rules for voting. Sometimes, different Emmy events have categories with the same name. For example, there's a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series and a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series.

A TV show usually cannot enter more than one Emmy event. For instance, a show that airs at different times in different places might be eligible for both Daytime and Primetime Emmys, but it can only choose one. A show is considered "national" if it reaches more than 50% of homes in the U.S. If it reaches less than 50%, it might enter the Regional Emmys instead. Streaming TV shows are similar: they must be available to over 50% of the U.S. to be in a national Emmy competition.

No matter which Emmy competition you win, all winners are called an "Emmy Winner."

Primetime Emmys

Actress Dana Delany holding a Primetime Emmy Award in 1992

The Primetime Emmys celebrate the best in American evening television. The ceremonies usually happen in mid-September. They are shown on ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, with each network taking turns every four years.

Some awards for people working behind the scenes are given out at a separate event. This is called the Creative Arts Emmys. It happens a few days before the main show. These awards are for people like art directors, costume designers, and cinematographers.

Members of the ATAS vote for the Primetime Emmys. For most categories, members vote for nominees only in their own area of expertise. All members can vote for the best program categories. The final voting to pick the winners happens in August.

Daytime Emmys

TV producer and writer Bradley Bell accepting Daytime Emmy Awards for his work on the daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful in 2010

The Daytime Emmy Awards usually take place in May or June. They honor excellent American daytime television programs. The first Emmy awards for daytime shows were given out in 1972. But the first separate awards show just for daytime TV was in 1974.

Like the Primetime Emmys, there's also a separate Creative Arts Emmy ceremony for daytime TV. This event honors the people who work behind the scenes on daytime shows.

Members of the NATAS vote for the Daytime Emmys. Voting is done by panels of experts. Any active NATAS member with experience in national TV can be a judge. For some categories, voting uses a scoring system. For acting awards, there's a first round where a few actors from each show are chosen. Then, they are considered for the main nominations.

Sports Emmys

The Sports Emmy Awards are given by the NATAS for great work in sports programming. The awards ceremony happens every spring, usually in April or early May. It is held on a Monday night in New York City.

Experts in sports production serve as judges. The NATAS asks people with lots of experience in national sports TV to be judges. Most categories have one round of voting. The top five entries in each category are announced as nominees. Then, the winner is announced at the awards ceremony.

News and Documentary Emmys

The News & Documentary Emmy Awards are given by the NATAS. They honor excellent national news and documentary programs. The awards ceremony takes place every fall.

Experts in national news or documentary work serve as judges. Most categories have two rounds of voting, with different judges in each round. The top entries in each category are announced as nominees. The winner is then announced at the awards ceremony.

Children's and Family Emmys

On November 17, 2021, the NATAS announced new awards: the Children's & Family Emmys. These awards started in 2022. They celebrate excellent TV shows for children and families. Before this, most awards for kids' shows were part of the Daytime Emmys or Primetime Emmys. The NATAS created this new ceremony because kids' and family programming has grown a lot. Also, the ATAS stopped its primetime children's TV categories in 2020. They agreed to move all such awards to the Daytime Emmys. This was because streaming services made it confusing where kids' shows belonged.

Engineering Emmys

Goddard Space Flight Center Engineer Richard Nafzger, actress June Lockhart, and astronaut Buzz Aldrin accepting the Philo T. Farnsworth Emmy Award on behalf of NASA in 2009. This award honored the technology used during the Apollo 11 Moon landing broadcasts.

The Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards (from ATAS) and the Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards (from NATAS) are two separate competitions. They honor people, companies, or groups for important new ideas and contributions to the technology of television. The NATAS's Technology & Engineering Emmys are usually in January. The ATAS's Primetime Engineering Emmys are in October.

Each academy has its own group of highly skilled engineers. These experts decide who gets their awards. One special award from the ATAS is the Philo T. Farnsworth Award. It honors companies that have greatly changed TV and broadcast engineering over a long time.

Regional Emmys

New England sports personality Charlie Moore holding a New England Emmy Award in 2011

WZDC-CD news director Maria Rozman, winner of three National Capitol/Chesapeake Bay Regional Emmy Awards in 2018

There are 20 regional chapters of the Emmys across the United States. Each chapter gives out regional awards. These awards recognize excellent TV in local areas, including state-wide shows and local news. Nineteen of these chapters are part of the NATAS. The Los Angeles chapter is part of the ATAS.

Generally, a show is "regional" if it does not reach more than 50% of homes in the U.S. If a program reaches more than 50% of the country, it must enter one of the national Emmy competitions instead.

Regional Emmys are important for honoring local TV professionals. Like the national awards, each region has strict rules for nominations and voting. Committees check entries for quality. Then, different committees vote to choose the nominees. Accounting firms then count the final votes.

No matter if you win a national or regional Emmy, you are an "Emmy Award winner." Donn Johnson, a chapter president, said in 2018 that the Emmy Award is "the most prestigious award a television professional can receive."

Originally, Regional Emmy Awards mostly focused on local news. Now, they include all local and state-produced shows that reach less than half of the country's viewers.

International Emmys

The International Emmy Awards celebrate excellent TV shows made outside the United States. The IATAS has given these awards annually since 1973. The awards ceremony usually happens in November in New York City.

Any non-U.S. TV company or person can submit a program. This includes networks, local stations, producers, directors, or writers. It doesn't matter if they are members of the IATAS. If a show is made by both U.S. and foreign companies, it might be eligible if it first aired outside the U.S. A show that enters the international competition cannot also enter any of the U.S. national ones.

Student Emmys

The College Television Awards are given by the ATAS. They honor excellent TV shows made by college students. College students across the country can submit their work. Categories include Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Music, Newscasts, and Series. ATAS members who are experts in each field judge the entries first. Then, special panels pick the winners. Any submitted work must have a form signed by a teacher. This proves it was made for a school group, project, or class.

Similarly, the National Student Production Awards are given by the NATAS. These awards honor excellent TV shows made by high school students. High school students nationwide can submit their work. They can get awards in news, craft, and programming categories.

Special Recognition Awards

The Governors Award is the highest award from the ATAS. It honors a person, company, or group whose work is very important right now.

The Trustees Award is the highest award from NATAS. It honors a person for their unusual or lasting achievements.

Humanitarian and Public Service Awards

The Bob Hope Humanitarian Award is given by the ATAS Board of Governors. It honors someone in the TV industry whose humanitarian work has a lasting positive effect on society.

The Public Service Award is for public service announcements and programs. These are shows that "advance the common good" and help society.

See also

In Spanish: Premios Emmy para niños

Emmy related

• List of Daytime Emmy Award winners
• List of Primetime Emmy Award winners
• List of International Emmy Award winners

Other similar awards