Comedy Is Booming — So Why Aren’t the Grammys & Emmys Featuring Those Categories in Prime Time?

These are roar times successful comedy. As of Sept. 25, stand-up comics sold 4.9 cardinal tickets to 2,078 unrecorded performances reported to Billboard Boxscore, for a full gross of $359.7 cardinal and counting. The large streaming services, specified arsenic Netflix, Hulu and HBO, regularly merchandise caller drama specials, and on-demand audio and video streams of drama contented person topped $1.32 cardinal done Oct. 3.

Given these outsized numbers, galore successful the concern accidental its clip that stand-up specials and albums got much radiance from the organizations that springiness retired Grammy and Emmy awards.

“Comedy ebbs and it flows, but arsenic of the past fewer years it’s been having a existent boom, and this is an manufacture that deserves respect,” says stand-up prima Iliza Shlesinger, whose latest special, A Different Animal, premiered connected Amazon Prime successful March and is entered for Grammy information for champion drama album. “I mean, immoderate of these comics are their ain microeconomies. We’re coming to respect podcasting arsenic an industry. We’re respecting influencers. The authorities of drama is 1 of the oldest creation forms adjacent to prostitution, and it deserves much respect.”

With Grammy voting underway — first-round voting ends Wednesday (Oct. 15) and the final-round voting runs from Dec. 12-Jan. 5 — the speech has turned to the Feb. 1 Grammys ceremonial and whether the champion drama medium class volition beryllium featured connected the prime-time telecast, oregon fixed retired during a pre-telecast ceremonial which is streamed connected Grammy.com.

The Recording Academy cycles categories successful and retired of the main event, and the past clip the champion drama medium victor was announced connected the telecast was 2020, erstwhile Dave Chappelle won for the signaling of his Sticks & Stones special.

A Recording Academy rep says, “We don’t cognize yet what categories volition beryllium featured connected the telecast this year, nor bash we denote that successful advance. But each of our 95 categories are ever being considered, including champion drama album.”

Shlesinger says the class much than deserves inclusion successful premier time. “At the extremity of the day, it is an creator performing an audio art,” she tells Billboard Comedy. “So, what’s the quality betwixt [stand-up] and a song? If I wrote it, I composed it, I acceptable up the bid of the jokes, determination is simply a musicality to it. So it should beryllium presented successful premier time.”

Living drama fable Lewis Black, who’s been nominated six times successful the champion drama medium class and won twice, agrees. “Comedy is surely large enough,” helium says. “And that [pre-telecast] day happening is successful a glorified auditorium. There is nary buffet.”

Black says that erstwhile helium received his archetypal Grammy successful 2007 for The Carnegie Hall Performance, his grant was fixed retired the day of the telecast. “I was irritated by it until — here’s the kicker — you spell done a property tally afterwards, and I’m down Chick Corea [who won 2 Grammys that year]. I said, ‘You’re not connected astatine night?’ He said, ‘No.’...