The Emmy Award, also known as the 'Emmy', is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards (for film), Grammy Awards (for music) and Tony Awards (for stage).

They are presented in various sectors of the television industry, including entertainment programming, news and documentary shows, and sports programming. As such, the awards are presented in various area-specific ceremonies held annually throughout the year. The best known of these ceremonies are the Primetime Emmy Awards, honoring excellence in American primetime television programming (excluding sports), and the Daytime Emmy Awards, honoring excellence in American daytime television programming.

Three related but separate organizations present the Emmy Awards:

• the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) honors national prime time entertainment excluding sports;
• the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) recognizes daytime, sports, news and documentary programming, and;
• the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences honors all programming produced and originally aired outside the United States.

History

The Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) established the Emmy Awards as part of an image-building and public relations opportunity. The name "Emmy" was chosen as a feminization of "immy", a nickname used for the image orthicon tubes that were common in early television cameras. To complement the name, the statuette was designed to depict a winged woman holding an atom, which has since become the symbol of the TV Academies' goal of supporting and uplifting the art and science of television: The wings represent the muse of art; the atom the electron of science.

The first Emmy Awards were presented on January 25, 1949 at the Hollywood Athletic Club, but solely to honor shows produced and aired locally in the Los Angeles area. Shirley Dinsdale has the distinction of receiving the very first Emmy, for Most Outstanding Television Personality, during that first awards ceremony.

In the 1950s, the ATAS expanded the Emmys into a national event, presenting the awards to shows broadcast nationwide. In 1955, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) was formed in New York as a sister organization to serve members on the East Coast, and help to also supervise the Emmys. The NATAS also established regional chapters throughout the United States, with each one developing their own local Emmy awards show for local programming.

Originally there was only one Emmy Awards ceremony held per year to honor shows nationally broadcast in the United States. That changed when the Daytime Emmy Awards, a separate awards show specifically just for daytime programming, was first held in 1974. Other area-specific Emmy Awards ceremonies soon followed. Also, the International Emmy Awards, honoring television programs produced and initially aired outside the U.S., was established in the early 1970s. Meanwhile, all Emmys awarded prior to the emergence of these separate, area-specific ceremonies are listed along with the Primetime Emmy Awards in the ATAS' official records.