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Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series

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The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program debuted in 1957, and has been annually awarded most years since 1964. It has had many slight name changes, mostly involving the addition or subtraction of the word comedy. Generally, the category has recognized the writers of variety and sketch comedy shows. However, in 1957, 1964 and 1979, it was the main category for writers of situation comedies, which have otherwise been recognized in a wholly separate category.

For most of the 1970s, the category was effectively split into two branches. From 1971 to 1978, one-off specials were awarded separately from ongoing series. Since then, the writers of one-off variety specials have competed against series writers, and have very occasionally won, as in 1991 and 2000. This has led to some anomalies, such as when a special edition of Late Night with David Letterman beat out regular editions of The Tracey Ullman Show and Saturday Night Live in 1987 — despite the fact that typical episodes of Late Night were not nominated that year.

The category eventually found greater stability with its name in 1982, when it settled on Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Music Program for almost two decades. In 2000, it added the word comedy, thus allowing for the current form of the name. Of all the writing Emmy categories, it has recently become the one most dominated by cable networks. Since 1996 it has been won by a major terrestrial broadcaster only twice, with the overwhelming majority of winners coming from HBO and Comedy Central.

List of winners

The following list of winners in this category is organized both by year and the name being used by the category in that year.

Best Comedy Writing -Variety or Situation Comedy

Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy or Variety

Outstanding Writing Achievement in Variety

Outstanding Writing Achievement in Music or Variety

Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety

Specials and series awarded separately

Outstanding Writing Achievement in Variety or Music

Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music Special

Best Writing in Variety or Music

Outstanding Writing in a Comedy-Variety, Variety or Music Series

Outstanding Writing in a Comedy-Variety, Variety or Music Special

Outstanding Writing in a Comedy or Comedy-Variety or Music Series

Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program

Outstanding Writing in a Variety, Music or Comedy Program

Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program

Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program

References

General:

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