The Emmys' new Legacy Award for classic TV shows, explained

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Fine-tuning Emmy Awards categories isn’t unusual for the Television Academy in any given year.Case in point, the upcoming 78th edition will feature changes to category names (Outstanding TV Movie is now Outstanding Movie) and rule clarifications (for Outstanding Main Theme Title Music, both the main and main-on-end of a program will be eligible).But creating a new award altogether is more of a rarity — the last time the academy did it was 2007, when it inaugurated the Honors Award to recognize programming that drives positive social change.

Well, until now: This year marks the first-ever Legacy Award, “presented to television programs that have made a ‘profound and lasting impact’ on audiences and remain relevant to society, culture and the industry.”To find out why it took the academy this long to create the award, who actually receives the Emmy statue and when it will be given, The Envelope spoke with Television Academy President and Chief Executive Maury McIntyre.How early did the talks start about creating the Legacy Award?In general, we’re talking about awards throughout the year.We have an awards committee that meets almost every other month to talk about changes just in terms of either things we have seen at the academy or things that other peer groups or the governors themselves have brought up.But the Legacy Award came about because of a conversation with Pearlena Igbokwe [chairman, Television Studios, NBC Entertainment and Peacock Scripted].

She asked, “Why don’t we do an award that celebrates shows that have had a long-lasting impact?” And we were all like, “That’s a really great idea.We should have done this years ago.” It was just one of those things that when people ask, “Why now?” I’m like, “Because we were idiots and didn’t think about it until now.”What was the process for getting it approved and making it a reality?Once Pea...