Learn More… Be a Judge

Entrant responsibilities: Just a reminder, it is an obligation of every entrant to judge entries from another chapter at some point in the year, if asked. And judging someone else's work is really the best way to understand how your own entry is being judged. For more information on how you can become a judge, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

The Emmys celebrate excellence in television...with the announcement of the nominees in May and the awarding of statuettes in June. In case you have ever wondered, this is how the process works:

In January, we receive hundreds and hundreds of entries. After a quick check for errors, they are sent to top television markets, such as New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and San Diego.

There, they are screened by seasoned program producers, news directors, assistant news directors, creative service directors, sports directors and long time TV veterans. In fact, one judge wrote on his credentials that he had been in the business for 43 years, so don't let anyone tell you that our Emmys are judged by interns and secretaries - your entries are judged by topnotch professionals.

When the scores come in, the Awards Committee uses predetermined guidelines to pick nominees in categories known only to our accounting firm, Lively & Company. The accounting firm then takes those blind results and translates them into nominees and awardees in every category.

Lively & Company then prepares the envelopes that are opened on Emmy Night, and maybe you or someone you know walks away with that golden statuette, Emmy.

Just as we try to trade with chapters who are structured similarly, we also try to trade similar categories. Each year, the chapters decide who they will trade with; we look at market size and market makeup.

For example: we will send Sports to a strong Sports market; Programming to a similar Programming market and News to like News markets. These selections are made very seriously with all our markets taken into careful consideration.