Emmys Could Leave Broadcast TV for Prime Video
The Emmy Awards are in advanced talks to move to Amazon Prime Video, a switch that would take the ceremony off broadcast television for the first time since it started in 1949. Variety reported the negotiations on 15 September 2026.
A Prime Video deal would end the wheel deal, the long-running arrangement where the telecast rotates each year among ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. That rotation has run for 31 years. It decides which network pays for the show and puts it in its schedule.
NBC and Peacock carried the 78th Emmys, the last show covered by the most recent eight-year wheel agreement struck in 2018. Under that deal, the networks paid just above $8 million a year in licence fees, meaning the payment for the right to broadcast the ceremony. Variety
Television Academy chair Cris Abrego said conversations are continuing on a new television deal. No deal is signed yet. Talks are advanced but unfinished.
Before landing on Prime Video, the Academy looked at other paths. One option kept a rotation going but with new outlets involved and Fox stepping out. Another idea was simulcasting, meaning one live feed shown across several networks and streamers at the same time, but selling advertising across rivals proved too complex.
Prime Video already has a record with awards shows. It picked up the Academy of Country Music Awards after the show left CBS in 2021, becoming the first major awards show to move to streaming. The SAG-AFTRA Actor Awards also left linear television on TNT and TBS for Netflix, while YouTube has acquired the Oscars from Disney and ABC and will start streaming that ceremony to a global audience in 2029. Variety
The Emmys have changed homes before. ABC, CBS and NBC shared the show from 1966 to 1986 before Fox took exclusive rights in 1987. Fox held them until 1992, followed by four years on ABC, before the four-network wheel was created in 1995.
For fans, this means the change is about where to find the night. If a deal is signed, viewers would need Prime Video rather than a broadcast channel to watch live. Behind that slot are the crews, writers and nominees whose work either gets a broadcast showcase or a streaming one.
