Extended ‘Lost’ finale gets Emmy Awards exemption, allowing actors, others to compete

Extended ‘Lost’ finale gets Emmy Awards exemption

LOS ANGELES — An Emmy rules exemption will give the talent behind Sunday’s extended-length “Lost” finale the chance to compete for awards.

The TV academy’s board of governors voted Wednesday night to make the upcoming “Lost” finale eligible for acting, directing and other individual honors despite the episode’s 105-minute length.

Its airtime with commercials is two-and-a-half hours, 9-11:30 p.m. EDT Sunday.

The ABC drama’s producers had notified the academy that the show would exceed the running time allowed under Emmy rules, John Leverence, the academy’s senior vice president for awards, said Thursday.

Actors and others seeking nominations for the finale would have been forced to cut 17 minutes before submitting it. Existing rules limit extended-length episodes to twice the normal running time of one hour, or 44 minutes minus commercials, for a standard drama episode.

The one-time exemption avoids that and echoes those granted previously for “The Wire” and other veteran series with many plot lines to wrap up, Leverence said. The board of governors applied “commonsense thinking” to the “Lost” request, he added.

The “Lost” finale’s length doesn’t affect its eligibility for a best drama series nod under existing rules.

The board of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences also voted to allow the “hanging episodes” — those aired just after the deadline for the return of nominating ballots — of Starz’s “Party Down” to be Webcast for consideration before they are telecast.

Academy rules stipulate that eligible episodes be presented on the same platform as the episodes that qualify a series. But because this year’s nominating window was shortened by a week to accommodate an earlier-than-usual Emmy Awards ceremony, “Party Down” was given the exemption out of fairness, Leverence said.

Nominations for the 62nd annual prime-time Emmy Awards will be announced July 8 in a brief televised ceremony with Joel McHale of “Community” and Sofia Vergara of “Modern Family.”

The Emmy Awards will air Aug. 29 on NBC, with Jimmy Fallon as host. The ceremony, which usually airs in September, was moved up to avoid a conflict with NBC’s Sunday NFL broadcasts.

Online:

www.emmys.org