TV academy leaders have just enacted one of the craziest changes ever to Emmy voting — a bizarre accommodation to "dangling" TV episodes . . . and to TV's top hoodlums.

In effect, it's a big smooch and a hard shove forward for two thugs who don't need it: Tony Soprano and Henry VIII.

HBO and Showtime exex made an extra-sneaky sacrifice this year while plotting their grand Emmy strategy. They decided to air the last few episodes of this season's "The Sopranos" and "The Tudors" after the cut-off date for awards eligibility in exchange for having fresh new episodes on TV just when voters are checking off their ballots.

Unfortunately, that meant that the big, grand series finale of "The Sopranos" wouldn't be eligible for Emmys, but, hey, HBO chiefs gambled that the tradeoff would be worth it. Ditto for "The Tudors," which arrives just as "Sopranos" takes its final bow.

These after-deadline episodes would not be eligible for ANY Emmys — even next year — under the old Emmy rules.

Here's what the TV academy policy was up until five minutes ago, "If episodes associated with a series are fewer than the minimum number needed to qualify them as a stand-alone series in any given awards year (six for drama and comedy, three for all other series), those 'dangling' episodes are not eligible in any awards year."

"The Sopranos" and "The Tudors" have two episodes "dangling" after the cut-off so they wouldn't qualify for next year.

But, wait, now, ah, things have changed!

On May 16, the academy's Board of Governors voted to permit dangling episodes to compete within the current year.

That means that ATAS just OK'd giving those shows an unfair advantage over competitors. Do you think it's not a big deal?

Think again. In years past, HBO shrewdly marketed "Sex and the City" at the Emmys by launching new seasons precisely at the start of every new voting period — early June. The result was rather confusing to voters. While they watched a new season on TV they were voting on the last one, but such a quibble was just a quibble. "Sex and the City" ended up with gads of nominations (56) and a few top wins, including best comedy series, actress (Sarah Jessica Parker) and supporting actress (Cynthia Nixon).

"It's quite obvious that this is for pro-Sopranos," says our forums poster iskolar.

Other poster Paul Han agrees: "I think this tells you all you need to know about who's going to sweep the drama categories this year. Talk about your all-time two headed coins. Heads 'Sopranos' wins, tails the field loses."

Read more of what our poster think — CLICK HERE!