A new TV trend is causing a stir: supposedly one-and-done limited series are being renewed for second seasons. The Emmys have a rule designed to keep studios from gaming the system, but is it enough?
On Monday, Apple TV announced that Imperfect Women would be back for another installment of murder and mayhem in Martha’s Vineyard. Kerry Washington is returning in Season 2 as Eleanor, but her Season 1 co-star Elisabeth Moss is not (Moss and Washington are both executive producing the new episodes). The first season didn’t receive any Emmy nominations this year.
The news comes one week after Netflix gave the green light for Season 2 of The Beast in Me, with Claire Danes back as troubled author Aggie Wiggs. Alas, Matthew Rhys is not returning as criminal neighbor Nile Jarvis, who met his maker at the end of the first season. It earned nine Emmy nominations and won two for Rhys in Best Limited/Movie Actor and Best Limited/Movie Music.
Imperfect Women and The Beast in Me are the latest limited series to continue on, despite the initial promise of being complete stories. Others include Big Little Lies, Downton Abbey, The Night Manager, Nine Perfect Strangers, Presumed Innocent, and The White Lotus.
The trend occurs so often that the Television Academy recently created a rule to prevent certain limited series from competing again and again in those categories. The Emmys rulebook now describes a limited series as a program that “tells a complete, nonrecurring story … it must be completely resolved within its season.” Shows that contain “ongoing storylines and/or main characters in subsequent seasons” will be reclassified as dramas.
Typically, the drama categories are much harder to get into than the limited series races. This year, for example, there were 110 submissions in Best Drama Series and only 31 in Best Limited Series. That’s why studios tend to wait until after Emmy season to announce the renewal of a limited series; if they declare it before the nominations, those programs would have to go drama from the get-go.
But the rule change isn’t enough to silence some detractors.
Vulture called on the TV Academy to “revoke” Rhys’ Emmy Award for The Beast in Me, citing deceitful category fraud. “Does the sanctity of a Limited Series Emmy mean nothing?” asked the entertainment outlet.
And Collider claimed that the Rhys example exposed “a major loophole in the Emmys submission process.”
However, Rhys’ fans are coming to his defense on social media. “The Beast in Me was envisioned, pitched, written, shot, edited as a miniseries, so those eight episodes are a miniseries,” argued Phantom. “What happened to it after it was completed and released won’t change that. So leave Matthew Rhys alone.”
Aidan chimed in, “I agree something should be done about category fraud, but it’s not Rhys’ fault and he shouldn’t be penalized as an individual.”
Howard Gordon, showrunner of The Beast in Me, told Deadline before Season 2 was picked up, “It was meant to be a limited series. It certainly is possible [we can come back], because whoever is left standing at the end of this is still around, and I think if there’s a story, we’d be up for it. I do think that there’s certainly room for another chapter.”
Since Washington and Danes are returning as the same characters in Imperfect Women and The Beast in Me, respectively, the Emmys will reclassify both shows as dramas going forward. That’s also what happened to Big Little Lies, Downton Abbey, and The White Lotus, to name a few.
Conversely, Beef was able to compete as a limited series for Season 2 earlier this year because it had no returning characters or storylines from Season 1. That’s the same path as authentic limited series like American Crime Story, Fargo, and Monster, all of which stand alone from cycle to cycle.
Here’s a look back at how some limited series fared at the Emmys when they were forced to switch to drama series classifications. In most cases, the number of nominations and/or wins dropped considerably from Season 1 to Season 2.
Big Little Lies
Season 1 (limited series): 16 noms, 8 wins
Season 2 (drama series): 5 noms, 0 wins
Downton Abbey
Season 1 (limited series): 11 noms, 6 wins
Season 2 (drama series): 16 noms, 3 wins
Season 3 (drama series): 12 noms, 1 win
Season 4 (drama series): 12 noms, 1 win
Season 5 (drama series): 8 noms, 1 win
Season 6 (drama series): 10 noms, 3 wins
The Night Manager
Season 1 (limited series): 12 noms, 2 wins
Season 2 (drama series): 0 noms, 0 wins
Nine Perfect Strangers
Season 1 (limited series): 0 noms, 0 wins
Season 2 (drama series): 0 noms, 0 wins
The White Lotus
Season 1 (limited series): 20 noms, 10 wins
Season 2 (drama series): 23 noms, 5 wins
Season 3 (drama series): 23 noms, 1 win
