NATAS Unveils Children’s & Family Emmy Awards

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) is set to present a stand-alone Children’s & Family Emmy Awards ceremony in 2022.

NATAS is spinning the kids’ awards off from the Daytime Emmy Awards, which had been home to the children’s and family programming categories. The creation of the event marks the first expansion of the Emmy Award competition since the Sports Emmy Awards and the News & Documentary Emmy Awards were launched in 1979.

There has been a 23 percent increase in children’s and programming submissions for the Emmys over the last two years, NATAS says. Of note, the Individual Achievement in Animation category received the largest number of entries across all NATAS contests, with nearly 300 submissions last year.

“NATAS has always been a leader in recognizing and celebrating excellence in our industry, and nothing is excelling and expanding more dramatically than the children’s and family community,” said Adam Sharp, the president and CEO of NATAS. “Recent years have seen explosive growth in the quantity and quality of children’s and family programming, and now is the perfect time to acknowledge and honor this impactful content with a dedicated competition and celebration.”

Categories, eligibility rules and the call for entries will be announced next year.