Awards Circuit Column: It's been 50 years since the Emmys split in two. Now the L.A.-based Television Academy and N.Y.'s National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences may finally combine again.
\n\nLast month’s news that the two rival TV academies are looking to reunite was welcome and overdue — but it won’t be as easy as flipping a switch. The Los Angeles-based Television Academy and the New York located National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences are run very differently, each having had 50 years to develop its own bureaucratic infrastructure. One insider tells me hundreds of items need to be ironed out before they can become one again. But that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t.
\n\nThe original Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (which now calls itself the “Television Academy”) was founded by Syd Cassyd, an entertainment journalist who was excited by the potential of the new medium and realized it needed an industry organization. Cassyd wasn’t keen on the idea of his TV academy handing out awards, but the notion soon took hold and the first Emmys (with awards just for Los Angeles TV stations) took place in 1949.
\n\nMeanwhile on the other coast, New Yorkers took notice…
Original source: https://variety.com/v/tv/