The Emmys are a barometer of who's hot in the television industry, more so than the Oscars are for the movies. This is because television shows stick around longer, and the same names tend to come up year after year. It's no great surprise to see "Abbott Elementary," "The Bear," and "Hacks" in the race for Outstanding Comedy Series, for instance. What's really intriguing are the newcomers - this year those familiar titles are joined by "Widow's Bay" and "Margo's Got Money Troubles," both from Apple TV+. Over in Outstanding Drama Series, the newcomers are "Your Friends & Neighbors," "Pluribus," and "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms." This is a rare year where I've actually seen more of the Drama nominees than the Comedy ones, and only two of the five Limited/Anthology nominees.
Frankly, the inclusion of "Your Friends & Neighbors," and "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" in Outstanding Drama is a little odd, because neither series got any other major nominations in acting, directing, or writing. It looks like "Task," which did get nominations in all those categories, would've been the next in line. Meanwhile, "Widow's Bay" got a whopping nineteen nominations on its first time out, including one of Matthew Rhys's two lead performance nominations (the other is for the Limited Series, "The Beast in Me.") I'm very glad to see Kate O'Flynn and Dale Dickey in Supporting Actress too. It looks like "The Chair Company" and "The Comeback" were other major contenders for Outstanding Comedy, from their nominations in other categories too. No comment on Limited series until I see more of the contenders. I guess I've got to subscribe to Peacock again for "All Her Fault."
The one-off nominations always offer some fun surprises. The acting categories are full of them - Yahya Abdul Mateen II for "Wonder Man," Chase Infiniti for "The Testaments," Sally Field for "Remarkably Bright Creatures," Riz Ahmed for "Bait," and Nick Offerman for "Death By Lightning" - too bad that last one didn't get more recognition. Bowen Yang, alas, is no longer with "Saturday Night Live" and no longer eligible. However, the one I'm really intrigued by is Mary Lou Belli getting a directing nomination for an episode of "The Ms. Pat Show," a sitcom which is currently on its fifth season on BET+. This show is so completely off my radar, I didn't know it existed. And thus, until I did some digging it totally escaped my notice that this is Mary Lou Belli's fourth consecutive nomination in the category. Good grief, talk about blind spots.
It looks like "The Pitt" is the new "Succession," with its sprawling ensemble cast dominating the Supporting Actor categories. They won last year's Outstanding Drama trophy, and I expect that they'll win this year too. In Outstanding Comedy, it's going to come down to the last season of "Hacks" versus "The Bear," which isn't being nominated for its last season that just came out, but the fourth season from way back last spring. I expect "Hacks" will take it this year. "Widow's Bay" is getting a lot of attention, but I expect that it's too much of a genre show for some of the older voters to handle. I'll refrain from making predictions about the other categories, except that I expect that Stephen Colbert and "The Late Show" are going to be getting a lot of love.
I don't want to spend too much time on snubs, but they are unavoidable. "The Boys," "Stranger Things" and "Spider-Noir" only got nominations in the tech and craft categories. I'm genuinely surprised that "Alien: Earth" and "Lord of the Flies" were almost totally ignored. The lack of "The Lowdown" and "Industry" is just plain rude. The Outstanding Movie (previously Television Movie) category feels like whatever Netflix and Prime felt like promoting when the nomination submissions were due.
Also, disappointed fans should be aware that "Heated Rivalry" is a Canadian production and not eligible for Emmy consideration, unfortunately. Connor Storrie's nomination is for hosting "Saturday Night Live." They are, however, eligible for the Las Culturistas Culture Awards, and were prominently featured in the opening number of the most recent ceremony.
The Emmys are on NBC this year, with Mariska Hargitay (nominated for Outstanding Directing For A Documentary/Nonfiction Program) hosting. Happy watching!
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