TV Movie Emmy Noms Are Nonsensical This Year — But This Category Has a Long History of Unusual Choices

variety.com:

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeNominated for 11 Emmys overall, “Brian’s Song” was so popular, and so successful, that it helped put the ABC “Movie of the Week,” as the franchise was called, front and center — cementing the TV movie as a network staple.

The “movie of the week” idea was so groundbreaking that the entire industry continued to call TV movies “MOWs” long after ABC had ditched the name.

But there was no TV movie category then, and “Brian’s Song’s” biggest Emmy victory was for “outstanding single program — drama or comedy.” The program bested a now iconic episode of “All in the Family” (“Sammy’s Visit,” wherein Sammy Davis Jr.

stops by and kisses Archie Bunker on the cheek, to the audience’s delight); as well as a “Hallmark Hall of Fame” installment; an episode of “Masterpiece Theatre’s” “Elizabeth R”; and one of the BBC’s “The Six Wives of Henry VIII” plays, which, believe it or not, ran on CBS that year.The next year, the category morphed into “outstanding drama/ comedy special.” It wasn’t until 1992 that it became “outstanding made-for-TV movie,” and yet even that year, confusion reigned: Two of the nominees were two-hour pilots — for ABC’s “Homefront” and NBC’s “I’ll Fly Away.” (NBC’s “Miss Rose White” won that year.) The real TV movie revolution began in 1993, when HBO won for the first time in the category, via a tie for “Barbarians at the Gate” and “Stalin.” The pay cabler dominated the category until 2015, losing only three times during that period, to ABC (2000), TNT (2003) and PBS (2011).PBS’ win was another fluke: Due to the virtual disappearance of miniseries in primetime, the TV Academy decided to merge outstanding TV movie and outstanding miniseries into one.