Burning Questions About John Oliver, Jon Stewart and the Emmys’ Messy Variety Categories

As we’ve written about before, the pandemic and the actors’ and writers’ strikes have dealt a blow to this year’s Emmy Awards, with fewer submissions across the board meaning fewer nominees at this year’s show. But few areas of the Emmys have been affected as much as the variety categories, which are in disarray.

The Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series category, for instance, dropped from 23 submissions last year to 11 this year, which puts it in line to drop from five to three nominees; Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series dropped from 21 to 14, which should cut its nominees from five to four.