Emmy Awards
An Emmy Award, or simply Emmy, is a trophy presented annually to recognize achievements in a particular sector of the television industry. The Emmy is considered one of the four major entertainment awards in the United States, the others being the Grammy (for music), the Oscar (Academy Award) (for film), and the Tony (for theatre). The two events that receive the most media coverage are the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Daytime Emmy Awards, which recognize outstanding work in American primetime and daytime entertainment programming, respectively. Other notable Emmy events include those honoring national sports programming, national news, and documentary shows, and technological and engineering achievements in television, including the Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards. Regional Emmy Awards are also presented throughout the country at various times throughout the year, recognizing excellence in local and statewide television. In addition, the International Emmy Awards honor excellence in TV programming produced and initially aired outside the United States.
The Emmy is named after "immy", an informal term for the image orthicon tube that was common in early television cameras. Although the weight and dimensions of the statuette may vary among the Emmy events, the basic design depicts a winged woman holding an atom.
Three related, but separate, organizations present the Emmy Award: the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), and the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (IATAS). The ATAS first awarded the Emmy in 1949 to honor shows produced in the Los Angeles area before it became a national event in the 1950s to honor programs aired nationwide. Over the next two decades, the ATAS, the NATAS, and the IATAS expanded the award to honor other sectors of the TV industry, with each organization responsible for administering a particular set of Emmy events.
- Emmy events and competitions
- Primetime Emmys
- Daytime Emmys
- Sports Emmys
- News and Documentary Emmys
- Children's & Family Emmys
- Engineering Emmys
- Student awards
- Highest achievement Emmys
Emmy statuette
The Emmy statuette, depicting a winged woman holding an atom, was designed by television engineer Louis McManus, who used his wife as the model. The ATAS rejected forty-seven proposals before settling on McManus's design in 1948. The statuette "has since become the symbol of the TV Academy's goal of supporting and uplifting the art and science of television: The wings represent the muse of art; the atom the electron of science."
When deciding a name for the award, ATAS founder Syd Cassyd originally suggested "Ike", the nickname for the television iconoscope tube. However, "Ike" was also the popular nickname of World War II hero and future U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the ATAS members wanted something unique. Finally, television engineer and the third academy president Harry Lubcke suggested the name "Immy", a term commonly used for the image orthicon tube used in the early cameras. After "Immy" was chosen, it was later feminized to Emmy to match their female statuette.
The weight and dimensions of the Emmy statuette vary among the events. Each Primetime Emmy statuette weighs six pounds twelve and a half ounces (3.08 kg), and is made of copper, nickel, silver, and gold. The statue stands 15.5 inches (39 cm) tall with a base diameter of 7.5 inches (19 cm) and a weight of 88 ounces (2.5 kg). The Regional Emmy Award statuette is 11.5 inches (29 cm) tall with a base diameter of 5.5 inches (14 cm) and weight of 48 ounces (1.4 kg). Each takes five and a half hours to make and is handled with white gloves to prevent fingerprints. The Primetime Emmy statues are manufactured by R.S. Owens & Company based in Chicago, Illinois, which was also charged with manufacturing the Academy Award statues until 2016 when AMPAS switched to Polich Tallix in Walden, New York. The Regional Emmy Awards are made by both R.S. Owens & Company and Society Awards, a New York-based company that also makes the Golden Globe Awards.
As its trademark owners, the ATAS and the NATAS hold firm rules on the use of the "Emmy" image as well as its name. For example, the Emmy statuette must always appear facing left. Any copyright notice for the statue should read "ATAS/NATAS", listing both academies. Academy members must also obtain permission to use the statue image or name for promotional uses even though they are winners of the award. Furthermore, DVDs of Emmy-winning shows may reference the fact that they received an Emmy, but cannot use the statue image unless it is capable of being removed from all copies one year after the award is presented.
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