‘FX on Hulu’ Shows Will Be Counted as FX at the Emmys (EXCLUSIVE)
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Upcoming original series “Devs,” “Mrs. America,” “A Teacher” and “The Old Man” won’t actually air on FX — but the network will still get credit when it comes to Emmy consideration.
The Television Academy has said that all “FX on Hulu” shows — which will air exclusively on Hulu, and not on the linear network — will nonetheless be counted as FX shows, and toward the FX tally, not Hulu’s tally, of nominations and/or wins.
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“We have determined that programming for ‘FX on Hulu’ will be considered FX, partly because Hulu doesn’t have any real involvement in the development, creative or marketing of the shows,” a TV Academy spokesperson told Variety.
“Mrs. America,” starring Cate Blanchett as 1970s conservative figure Phyllis Schlafly, and tech thriller “Devs” will bow in the spring, making both Emmy contenders this upcoming season. It’s still unclear whether any of the “FX on Hulu” series will get a secondary run on the linear network.
As programmers begin to migrate their wares from linear to streaming platforms, get ready for more confusion when it comes to who should be credited for what. “FX on Hulu” is a portal on the Hulu service that houses FX series — but if some of those FX series can only be accessed via “FX on Hulu,” should that be considered its own, unique outlet? In this case, the Academy says no.
“This is a place where the industry’s going to have to grow, I think it’s going to have to change,” FX Networks CEO John Landgraf told Variety at the Television Critics Association press tour earlier this month. “If you think about it, you now have this weird state of affairs, where you have Amazon, Netflix and Apple, where the platform and the programming brand are the same. … Then you have Disney Plus, which is a platform that has five brands. You have Peacock, which is going to have multiple brands. You have Hulu, that now has two brands.”
But there’s also precedent inside the Television Academy for identifying dual outlets as its own, unique entity. At the Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards, which the North Hollywood-based org also administers, CBS’ owned-and-operated KCBS and KCAL duopoly will be nominated as separate stations in some cases — but KCBS/KCAL will often also be nominated as a joint outlet, including individuals from its combined news department.
Other questions likely to come up this year include the case of National Geographic’s “The World According to Jeff Goldblum,” a show that airs exclusively on Nat Geo’s Disney Plus portal — but was developed and marketed through the Nat Geo channel. Per the Academy, since that show has been marketed as a Disney Plus original, its network attribution will be Disney Plus.
NBCUniversal’s decision to run “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night With Seth Meyers” on its new Peacock streaming service first, hours before its NBC run, brings up another question: Are those now Peacock shows, and should they be identified as such by the Television Academy?
“The Academy will have to review on a case-by-case basis. In general, what we’ll be looking to see is if the platform is operating more like a network — with say over creative, production or marketing — or is it merely being used a means of distribution by the originating network,” the Academy spokesperson said.
[Photo: Cate Blanchett, “Mrs. America”]
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