Squid Game Is Eligible For The 2022 Emmys, But There's A Twist

At this point, it seems like half the planet is existing in a vacuum of "head empty, no thoughts, only 'Squid Game,'" or perhaps I'm just projecting my own experiences onto others again. Regardless, according to statistics the company refuses to share, "Squid Game" is the biggest series launch in Netflix history. With award season just around the corner, one of the top questions on everyone's mind is whether or not the streaming giant will submit "Squid Game" for awards consideration, and given its South Korean production history, whether or not "Squid Game" even qualifies for the Primetime Emmy race.

Per Variety:

According to an Academy spokesperson, because "Squid Game" was produced under guidance from Netflix, which is an American company, and it was always intended to be distributed in the U.S., it can be entered in the Primetime Emmy race.

But since "Squid Game" was produced internationally, it is also eligible to enter the International Emmys. But it has to choose and can't enter both, as both the Los Angeles-based TV Academy and the New York-based International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences have rules preventing Emmy double-dipping.

With the confirmation that "Squid Game" is eligible, many are speculating that the survival drama could become the television follow-up to the cinematic success of Bong Joon-ho's "Parasite," in becoming the first non-English language series to take home the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series.

What makes "Squid Game" different from some of Netflix's other international fare like the Canadian comedy "Kim's Convenience" with "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" star Simu Liu, is that "Squid Game" was created exclusively for Netflix, whereas a show like "Kim's Convenience" was produced for CBC Television, and merely distributed by Netflix.

What makes this complicated is that as streaming services continue expanding their global production, the lines between Primetime Emmys and International Emmys are blurring more and more. Streamers are now able to submit any show they develop in-house, regardless of production location, as long as the show was not acquired from an outside production studio. As Variety speculates, this could complicate things because "a network can say it retroactively got involved in shaping a show, unless it's obvious that the project was acquired after it already aired on a partner in another country."

As was confirmed to IndieWire by Netflix, "While there is no Season 2 pickup yet, the show will compete in Drama Series categories, not Limited Series — where Netflix will already have the critically acclaimed 'Maid' in competition."

It's important to note that this eligibility is for the Television Academy, and other award shows may not subscribe to similar eligibility requirements.