Golden Globes Tweak Rules to Embrace Episodic Anthology Series

Episodic anthology series are being welcomed to the Golden Globes with open arms after a rule change announced by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association on May 15.

The HFPA released their updated rules for the 77th Golden Globe Awards, which included new language aimed specifically at anthology series. Previously, those shows that functioned as a series of distinct and individual stories based on a common theme or subject and are not serialized landed in a no-man’s land, ineligible as a whole for either series or limited series.

Though it never resulted in nominations, anthology series were eligible to submit individual episodes that ran over 70 minutes as TV movies. Because the Globes lump limited series and TV series together in their own category, that meant that, for example, an individual episode of Netflix’s “Black Mirror” would be judged against entirety of HBO’s “Sharp Objects.”

With Wednesday’s change, episodic anthology series, including “Black Mirror,” CBS All Access’ “The Twilight Zone,” and Amazon’s “The Romanoffs” will be eligible to compete as full-fledged limited series.

The change comes months after the Television Academy made a few anthology series-related rule changes of its own. In December 2018, the Academy determined that to be ruled a TV movie, an installment of an episodic anthology series must be longer than 75 minutes. In January 2019, the Academy ruled that anthology series may enter Emmys competition as a series or may choose to break individual episodes into standalone programs.

The 77th Golden Globe Awards will take place on Jan. 5, 2020.