A new awards body answers three questions before its first cycle: who votes, by what rubric, and to what end. Here are ours, in the open, before the inaugural cycle.
The Emmys were chartered for a broadcast-television industry that no longer exists. The Critics’ Choice Awards do the work of a critics’ body but vote on a craft-rich slate that exceeds the time their broadcast can hold. The Television Critics Association awards are quietly excellent but underexposed. The Golden Globes have their own structural problems.
None of these were designed for a world where Apple TV+ and Netflix originals routinely outpace network drama, where limited series are the form most discussed, where international shows dominate the streaming charts, and where the platform itself becomes a creative voice. The Marquees are a 21st-century-only show, deliberately scoped, with categories shaped for the work as it actually appears.
The Marquees are decided by an editorial jury — an independent body of working television critics, scholars, and industry observers without active studio or platform affiliation. The 2026 inaugural jury is being assembled now; full roster will be published with the November nominations announcement.
Working professionally in TV criticism, scholarship, or analysis for at least three years. No active employment with a streaming platform, network, studio, or production company. Conflicts of interest are recused, not waived.
Roughly 40–60 jurors for the inaugural cycle, drawn from North America, the UK, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The size is deliberate: small enough to be deliberative, large enough to be defensible.
Two-year terms, staggered. Half the jury rotates each year. Continuity for institutional memory; rotation for fresh perspective. No juror sits longer than four consecutive years.
Inaugural seats by invitation from the editorial board. The cohort is intended to be ideologically diverse but professionally consistent — people who watch a lot of TV, write or speak about it for a living, and can defend a vote on the record.
A published rubric, not a feeling. Each category has its own evaluation framework; here is the shared spine across all of them:
Achievement in the formal vocabulary of the medium — performance, direction, writing, design. The thing that’s on the screen.
Was the work attempting something the medium hasn’t recently done well? Anthology structure, single-take episodes, real-time format, voice-driven first-person, formal experimentation. Not innovation for its own sake; innovation that earns its place.
Did the work reach an audience that engaged with it as more than content? The Marquees explicitly value impact within the audience that found it, not raw viewership. A 4-million-viewer limited series that everyone watched together can outweigh a 30-million-viewer series watched alone.
Did the work cohere from premise to finale? An ambitious project that fell apart in week six is judged less generously than a modest one that landed.
The Marquee Awards are an independent property of the WholeTech network, funded internally and through editorial sponsorships from organizations with no stake in the work being evaluated. Platforms cannot purchase nominations, sponsor categories, or otherwise influence outcomes. Sponsorship arrangements, when they exist, are disclosed alongside the ceremony.
Submissions are free for the inaugural cycle. The editorial jury is unpaid for the inaugural cycle and compensated at a flat per-cycle honorarium beginning in 2027 — an amount small enough not to create dependency, large enough to acknowledge the workload.
For press inquiries, submission questions, or jury-application interest, the editorial board is reachable through the contact channels below. We respond within five business days.
For award-show coverage of the existing ceremonies (Emmys, Oscars, BAFTAs, Globes, Critics’ Choice, and the rest), see the Awards Almanac — sister property in the WholeTech network.