Curious as to who makes up the judging pool at the Daytime Emmy Awards? The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has released its first ever demographic survey of NATAS judges, which shows that the daytime pool is made up of mostly white judges between the ages of 39 and 54.
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has released its first-ever demographic survey of NATAS judges, implemented to better understand the judging panels' representation of the broader community of creators whose work they were assessing. 55% of 2021 Daytime Emmy judges participated in the survey (compared to 77% of News & Documentary Emmy judges and 50% of Sports Emmy judges), which aims to highlight the diversity of the judging pool while shedding light on areas where representation needs to be strengthened to more accurately reflect society and the daytime industry.
"With this report, NATAS is proud to be setting what we hope will become widely adopted benchmarks for transparency across all major awards competitions," said Adam Sharp, President and CEO, NATAS. "As Emmy submissions have increased the demands on our judges, we felt it was vital to be open with the changes we have adopted to ensure continued, equitable treatment for all submissions."
According to the report, judges in the 2021 competition were asked to respond to a series of demographic survey questions but were permitted to opt out. If a judge declined to participate, that fact was kept confidential and had no impact on the judge's potential role as an Emmy judge or otherwise, in any manner whatsoever.
The results of the Daytime Emmy judging pool are as follows:
47% of the judges identified as men, while 49% identified as women. Less than 1% identified as non-binary/no gender/unspecified.
42% of judges were between the ages of 39 and 54, while 32% were between the ages of 24 and 38. 20% reported that they were between the ages of 55 and 70, while 1% reported being over the age of 70, and less than 1% said they were under the age of 23.
68% of judges were white, followed by 16% Black or African American, 7% Asian or Asian American, and 9% other or unspecified.
82% reported being non-Hispanic, with 11% reporting they were of Hispanic descent.
68% of Daytime Emmy judges identified as being straight, followed by 14% gay or lesbian, 4% bisexual, and 2% queer or questioning. 12% of respondents chose other or declined to answer.
As stated in the report, the survey paints a picture of opportunity, with several areas in need of attention as NATAS seeks to expand and diversify the volunteer judging community.
"We encourage networks, platforms, production companies, and other content creators, whose employees make up the majority of the judging pool, to join us in these efforts by continuing to put a focus on increased diversity in their companies and on their sets and to encourage participation in the Emmy judging process," the report reads. "To this end, NATAS will share anonymized survey data with organizations represented by significant numbers of judges so that such companies may better understand the current diversity of their submitted judges and work with NATAS toward increased representation in future cycles."
NATAS also promises to proactively pursue dialogue and solutions with individual company Diversity Officers and Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), industry executives, and allied trade associations and community organizations to further promote diversity within the television industry as a whole.
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To view NATAS' full Demographic Survey of the NATAS Judging Pool, click here. The survey information begins on page 33, following the organization's full 2020-21 Transparency Report.
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