The Emmys will move five categories out of the NBC telecast, Variety reports exclusively, as part of a bid to revamp the ceremony and reshape the broadcast's running order.

The decision marks the latest structural adjustment to the Primetime Emmy Awards presentation, with the Television Academy and its broadcast partner opting to shift a quintet of categories off the main NBC telecast. The change targets the mechanics of the ceremony itself — what airs, what gets presented where, and how the show paces itself across the evening.

Why move categories off the telecast?

Awards shows have spent years trimming and restructuring their broadcasts in response to declining live viewership and pressure from network partners. Moving categories out of the televised ceremony is one of the most direct levers available: it shortens the telecast, reduces the number of acceptance speeches, and frees runtime for what producers consider higher-impact segments.

For the Emmys, the move of five categories represents a meaningful cut to the on-air presentation. It is the kind of change that affects the visibility of the categories involved — winners announced off-telecast historically receive less exposure than those crowned during the live broadcast, a dynamic that has long rankled the guilds and below-the-line communities most often affected by such cuts.

The report frames the decision as a bid to revamp the ceremony, language that signals broader reformatting ambitions rather than a one-off scheduling tweak.NBC becomes the network carrying the revamped broadcast, adding the Emmys to its rotation of the awards show among the Big Four broadcasters.

What does this change in the awards race?

Category placement on the telecast has real consequences beyond pacing. When the Television Academy moves categories off the air, it alters the incentive structure for campaigners:

• Winning a non-televised category means less prime-time visibility for the recipient and their network or streamer.
• Studios may shift campaign spending toward categories guaranteed a broadcast slot.
• Trades and industry press coverage patterns can shift, since on-air moments drive next-day coverage volume.

The Emmys have faced recurring friction over this exact issue. Past ceremonies saw the Academy walk back an earlier attempt to pre-record presentations of several writer and guest-acting categories after industry backlash — a reminder that structural changes to the telecast often meet resistance from the affected branches.

Whether the five categories being moved this cycle stay off the air permanently, or rotate in and out as part of the revamped format, will shape how the creative community responds.

What happens next?

Details on which five categories are affected, and how those awards will now be presented — whether in a pre-taped segment, an off-air ceremony, or some edited form within the broadcast — remain the immediate open questions. How NBC and the Academy handle that presentation format will determine whether the revamp reads as streamlining or as a demotion of the categories involved.

For now, the fact on the record is this: five categories are coming off the NBC Emmy telecast, and the ceremony's structure is being actively rebuilt around them.