65th Primetime Emmy Awards

The Television Academy was alerted to an issue with "hanging episodes" by Starz. The channel has numerous series with multiple "hanging episodes". "Hanging episodes" are episodes broadcast after the Academy's deadline for consideration that are part of a season that began before the deadline. For instance, in 2012, Starz's Magic City and AMC's Mad Men both ended their seasons in June, after the May 31 deadline. These episodes were allowed to be webcast for award consideration prior to their telecast should that telecast air after the submission period has closed. The Academy had prior rules stipulating that eligible episodes be presented on the same platform as the episodes that qualify the series.[9]

The reviews for the ceremony were mostly negative. Brian Lowry of Variety panned the show, writing: "By the time the show was over, it was hard not to think we could have done with at least one less musical number, or one less memorial tribute, in order to let the winners — including high-profile ones in major categories — actually deliver an acceptance speech without hearing piano music kick in just as they started warming up."[13] Melisa Maerz of Entertainment Weekly also gave the ceremony a negative review, writing: "All of which begged the question: What does the Emmys really offer us, anyway, that we can't get elsewhere? Witty banter? (There was more of that online.) Red-carpet gawking? (Nothing here that you can't see on Instagram.) Exclusive access to the Mani Cam? If you're only tuning in to see which under-appreciated shows to add to your DVR queue, well, Twitter can tell you that better than the Emmys, especially when a mediocre season of Modern Family wins against Louie, Girls, and Veep. The one thing the Emmys is still very good at? Creating consensus. But maybe that's the problem. This year, the consensus was that the Emmys were bad."[14]

The broadcast received 17.63 million viewers, the largest audience in total viewers since 2005.[15]