The Emmys Limited Series category is more confusing than its sibling categories of Drama and Comedy and needs an overhaul. The Limited Series category is always one of the more exciting categories at the Emmys since there is more variety in nominees from year to year. The shows nominated can cover a wide range of interests, such as 2021's nominees for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series: I May Destroy You, Mare of Easttown, The Queen’s Gambit, The Underground Railroad, and WandaVision. These offerings come from both newcomers and staples of the entertainment industry and as limited series, there are completely new sets of nominees from year to year.
The full title of the category is “Limited or Anthology Series, Movie”, allowing very different types of television productions to compete against one another. This makes the submissions for nomination pretty arbitrary in comparison to Drama and Comedy, where long-running series compete against one another for years on end. For example, WandaVision and Hamilton competed against each other for acting and directing awards in the Limited Series categories, although Hamilton was also eligible and nominated in the Variety categories as a Variety Special but not for Limited Movie.
Another confusing Emmy rule, explained fully in an article from IndieWire, states that the number of nominees in the Limited Series category is dictated by how many submissions the category receives. Therefore, the more submissions the category receives, the more nominees it can have with the minimum amount of nominees being 5 and 8 being the maximum. This is not the case for the Comedy and Drama categories, which are always allowed 8 nominations. The Television Academy (the institution that organizes the Emmys and sets the rules) should take some steps to overhaul the category, such as tightening requirements for submission and also expanding the category to 8 nominees like its comedy and drama counterparts.
The Emmys nominations for the Comedy and Drama categories are very straightforward, containing nominees such as Ted Lasso and Black-ish in comedy, and The Crown and Bridgerton in drama. As previously stated, the Emmys limited series category is not so, with more eccentric and exciting television shows getting their shot at the prestigious awards, as well as television movies. The category now includes Anthology series, which does not make much sense as there are ongoing anthology series that could easily fall in the category of Comedy or Drama. There were no anthology series nominated in the category this year, which makes it seem, stranger, that the Television Academy felt the need to make a specific addition to the category.
Even with the addition of anthologies to this Emmy Awards category, there were still only 5 nominees in the Limited Series category, meaning that the number of submissions fell within the lowest parameters. Since there is no turnover in the Limited Series category each year, it logically follows that the number of submissions in the category would be less than for the Comedy and Drama categories. But this severely limits (pun intended) the category, since the number of submissions can keep other deserving shows from being nominated.
The Television Academy should seriously re-consider their current configuration of the Emmy Awards category of Limited Series. The requirements for submission should be more clear so that the nominees are more similar to one another in format and to ensure that nominees are competing in the correct categories. The submission requirements for nominees should also be removed so that the Emmys can reward more shows with nominations. Hopefully, these rules can be changed in the near future, to allow for a more comprehensive awards show, and so that the competition is more fair and exciting for viewers and competitors alike.