Should Emmy Awards revive Best New Series category with likes of ‘Empire,’ ‘Transparent’ …?

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The Emmys had a Best New Series category three times in the fifties — 1953, 1956 and 1957 — and then from 1970 to 1973. The award went to a mix of Emmy favorites like “Playhouse 90” (1956), “All in the Family” (1971) and “Elizabeth R” (1972). But it’s been more than 40 years since that category was last awarded. Should the TV academy bring it back to honor standout shows like “Transparent,” “Empire” or “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver“? If so, what series would be nominated and win this year?

We asked our forum posters what they think about a potential Best New Series category. Read some of their comments below, and join them now to let us know what you think.

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nkb325: Maybe they could do something like the Critics’ Choice Awards and their list of exciting new series … Each year they could announce a list of the five most promising or best new series. That way they are still getting on the Emmys radar but there isn’t another award added to the 1,000 the Emmys already have.

KyleBailey:  I think it would be nice. This year’s nominees would probably have been “Transparent,” “Empire,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” “Better Call Saul” and “American Crime” if they let anthologies in.

mikeboy898: Yes they should! But not for series that haven’t aired yet. They should have a ‘Best New Series’ for shows that have debuted their first seasons, or are currently airing them (“#Mr. Robot#,” for example, which deserves all the awards!).

GoMe91: I’d say no because I don’t believe it would make much of a difference. I could see a show get its sole nomination for Best New Series, and then it being dropped altogether the next year.

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goldderbyMake all of your Emmy predictions and you could win one of our three prizes ($500, $300 and $200 Amazon gift certificates) as well as a place of honor on our leaderboard and a starring role in next year’s Top 24 Users (the two dozen folks who do the best predicting this year’s Emmys).

Meet the guy who won our contest to predict the Emmys last year — and learn how he did it and how you can be our next Gold Derby superstar. 

Last year, our Experts had an accuracy rate of 58.62% when it came to predicting the Emmy winners. That score tied them with both Gold Derby’s Editors and the Top 24 Users (those two dozen folks who did the best at predicting last year’s Emmys). Our Users scored  51.72% (Click on any of these groups to see what they got right and wrong last year.)

Which group will be victorious this year?

As some of our Users turn out to be our smartest prognosticators, it’s important that you give us your predictions. Your picks influence our Users racetrack odds, which also factor into our official combined odds.

Photo: Finn Wittrock in “American Horror Story: Freak Show.” Credit: Michele K. Short/FX

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