The Television Academy has unveiled a wide-ranging set of new rules for the upcoming Emmy season, including expanding the series nominees to seven (from six), clarifying the definition of "guest" actor, and further distinguishing between "limited series" and comedy and drama series.

---Series Nominees: The number of nominees in comedy and drama races has been increased to seven, due to the dramatic increase in series production.

---Comedy vs. Drama: To clarify the difference between the "comedy" and "drama" series categories, series with episodes of 30 minutes or less are defined as a "comedy"; those with episodes of more than 30 minutes will be considered a "drama."

---Series vs. Limited Series: "Mini-Series" will be changed to "Limited Series" and defined as programs of two or more episodes with a total running time of at least 150 program minutes that tell a complete, non-recurring story, and do not have an ongoing storyline and/or main characters in subsequent seasons. "Comedy" and "Drama" will continue to be defined as programs with a minimum of six episodes which have an ongoing storyline, theme and main characters presented under the same title and with continuity of production supervision. Producers may formally petition for review by the aforementioned industry panel to change category eligibility.

---Guest Actor: Only performers appearing in less than 50% of a program's episodes are now eligible to submit in the Guest Actor category.

---Variety Series: The Variety Series category is now split - Outstanding Variety Talk, to be awarded during the Primetime Emmy telecast, and Outstanding Variety Sketch, to be included in the Creative Arts Emmy program.

---Expansion of Final Round Voting: In an effort to expand member participation in the voting process, and to take advantage of the Academy's extension of online voting to both rounds,all voters eligible to vote in a category's nominating round are now eligible to vote in that category's final round, so long as they meet two additional requirements: much like the former Blue Ribbon panel process, voters must watch the required submitted material online and attest to no specific conflicts of interest with the nominees.

I just prefer a smaller number of nominees per category. I mean in theory, it's nice to see a greater number of shows recognized. And unlike the Oscars, the Emmys aren't predictable. But it's less of an honor to be nominated with six other shows than it is with four other shows.

Fargo will feature characters from its 1st season, while True Detective's first season is self-contained.