The success of the Emmy^® Awards process depends on the willingness of qualified professionals to serve as judges.

Entrants:
By entering, you agree to serve as a judge when asked, and that judging must occur during calendar year 2019.

• If you enter once, you’ll need to judge once
• If you enter twice, you’ll need to judge twice
• If you enter three or more times, you’ll need to judge at least 3 times

Entrants who meet their judging requirements enjoy reduced entry fees.
There are typically 6-9 opportunities to judge other chapters’ entries during the year and all entrants are notified via email at that time. Also, judging availabilities are displayed in your membership dashboard as they occur.
What’s the time commitment for judging? 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the category; judging can be done anywhere you have a computer; it’s all online.

Membership Bonus:
When you judge 3 or more times during a calendar year, you’ll earn a $10 discount on membership dues for the coming year. There is no limit to the amount of judging you can do, as long as you’re qualified to judge the categories you choose.

We polled several of our long-time judges, to ask them Why Judge? Here’s what they said:

• “I like to compare my work with other markets around the country”
• “It expands the judging pool, which is how I want my work judged”
• “I get a ton of ideas from watching other people’s work”
• “Doing it online is super-easy for my schedule; I don’t have to do it all at once”

Discussion around Categories without Nominations

It has come to our attention that there are questions related to categories which did not receive nominations in this year’s Heartland Regional Emmy Awards. First, thank you to the members who have asked about the judging process. Second, in order to foster clear communication and transparency among all members, we want to further explain that process.

• This is neither a precedent-setting nor a unique circumstance. Categories with zero nominees occur annually, and over a wide variety of disciplines. This year there were 8 professional categories, including both news and non-news (programs) representing entries from markets across the Heartland chapter, which did not receive nominations.
• All entries in all categories are judged by at least 7 peers in a NATAS region outside of the Heartland chapter. Peers are defined as people who have three or more years experience working in the category they are judging. Judges acknowledge their experience via affidavits submitted to NATAS. Entries are judged on their own individual merits; they are not judged in competition with each other, which is why it is possible to have a statistical tie once all scores are added together.
• In order to receive a nomination, an entry must reach a threshold percentage of high scores. Entries with scores below that threshold do not receive a nomination. The Awards Committee determines the cut-off percentage in a “blind” meeting where the entrants and categories are undisclosed.
• In order to receive an Emmy award, entries much reach an even higher threshold.

In light of the questions regarding this year’s entries, we researched the categories without nominations. We determined that all of the judges were peers and their credentials are in order. We also verified that different chapters judged different categories, meaning they weren’t all judged by the same chapter which might imply a bias toward, or dislike of, the Heartland region. Further, the judges’ scores did not reflect a bias toward or against a particular company, group, or entrant.

We encourage questions about the judging process and work diligently to ensure its credibility and authenticity. If you ever have concerns or questions, please don’t hesitate to submit a written letter to the NATAS Heartland Chapter office, to be taken up by the Awards Committee. This is the best way to ensure clear, transparent communication.

Sincerely,
The NATAS Heartland Chapter Awards Committee