Changes in the Emmy nomination rules

Considering the controversy over last year’s nominee-expanding rule changes, it’s no wonder the TV academy’s modifications for the 2010 Emmy Awards seem less dramatic. But just as last year’s nips and tucks demonstrated the organization’s commitment to maintaining a fair process, this year’s adjustments show that the Emmys can change alongside the business that they honor.

“There’s a general critical consensus and industry consensus that prime-time TV has moved into an extraordinary new era,” says John Leverence, the TV academy’s senior vice president of awards, who has overseen the process since 1980.

The Emmys’ role in recognizing that new era began in 2009 with its move from five to six nominees in the major categories, and it continues this year with changes to the guest star category. Not only will actors who appear as guests on multiple series now be able to enter the race for all of their roles — those folks like Fred Willard, who appeared on “Castle,” “Chuck” and “Modern Family” this season — but the six (now up from five) nominees will be determined in the same single-round vote as the other major categories.

And why exactly didn’t the change get wrapped up in last year’s overhaul?

Two-part voting — in which the general membership selected a top 10, and then a blue-ribbon panel narrowed it down to the final five nominees — for guest stars “was more of a tradition that had been entered into at least 10 years prior, and the feeling was that maybe we should keep that,” Leverence says. However, when the accountants pointed out that the same negligible difference between a two-part vote with five nominees and a single vote with six applied to guest stars as much as to the series regulars, the TV academy decided to abandon the longstanding convention.

“If you expand to six, you’re going to fulfill at least the spirit, if not the letter, of the two-phase nominating process,” he says.

In addition to limiting members to no more than two consecutive years of voting on blue-ribbon panels, the other major clarification in the rules for 2010 is related to what the academy calls “hanging episodes,” which refers to episodes that don’t fall into the qualifying period of June 1 to May 31.

Leverence says the change is a result of a snag with the final season of “The Sopranos,” most of which aired during the qualifying period, minus the last two key episodes. According to the rules at the time, any episodes that aired after May 31 couldn’t receive Emmy consideration, which led to a little bit of rule-bending in order for the academy to extricate itself from an uncomfortable situation with HBO. Now the rule says that if a show has aired enough qualifying episodes during the regular season, those hanging episodes are considered part of the contiguous season.

Aside from allowing such an iconic series to receive its due, the change accommodates an evolving business model.

“May 31 is not a brick wall that series are not going to be able to get around,” Leverence notes. “They just pass through it and they go into June, which is certainly a game-changer caused by cable.”

Other shifts include the “2% rule,” which says that if the fifth and sixth vote-getters in a category that has five nominees are within 2% of each other, both receive the nod. However, this rule doesn’t apply to the categories that already have six nomination slots — those can go to seven only if there’s an actual tie. Also, the animation category was consolidated so that half-hour and hourlong series are considered together, and short-form moves into its own category.

So, no drastic changes, but you have to think Fred Willard is pleased.

calendar@latimes.com