Television Academy Launches Inaugural Televerse Festival in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, California – The Television Academy is set to host its inaugural Televerse festival from August 14 to August 16, 2025, at L.A. Live. This first-of-its-kind event aims to bridge the Emmy award season with engaging discussions and screenings for nominees across various categories.

The festival will include panels and screenings for nominees in categories like Drama, Comedy, and Reality Competition Programs. It also welcomes television fans, featuring premieres of new shows such as “The Rainmaker” and reunions for fan-favorite series like “Bones” and “Queer as Folk.”

Academy President and CEO Maury McIntyre highlighted the festival as a strategic extension of the Academy’s efforts to promote excellence in television. “We’ve set the gold standard in defining excellence in television, and our 30,000 members contribute to that,” he said. “We thought we should probably be trying our hand at it.”

In addition to show screenings, the festival will offer industry panels on topics like music supervision and the legal future of AI in television. Workshops featuring industry veterans such as Henry Winkler and Beau Willimon will also take place, concluding with an event honoring prominent figures like Conan O’Brien and Viola Davis.

Preparing for the festival presented challenges, as many nominees were confirmed only after Emmy nominations were announced. McIntyre noted the tight timing of the festival’s planning phase, saying, “The compressed time between nominations and actually pulling off the festival is one of our biggest challenges.”

Moreover, the festival aims to provide exposure for new content and nominees, with shows planned for launch in future Emmy cycles presented to attendees, allowing fans and Academy members to engage with fresh talent.

McIntyre expressed enthusiasm about the possibilities for future festivals: “We’re hoping to build on that for future years. Now that we’ve established ourselves, we want to be top-of-mind for networks launching shows next fall.”

As the Televerse festival unfolds, the Academy is committed to evolving the event based on attendee feedback to enhance its relevance and effectiveness for years to come.