Emmy Noms: 8 Biggest Lessons
Plus: Join the Prestige Junkie After Party — details inside
As you heard earlier, I hope, congratulations are in order, and not just for today’s lucky Emmy nominees. I’m so excited to introduce Prestige Junkie After Party, the new addition to this newsletter and podcast, where my colleague Christopher Rosen and I will bring you even deeper, subscriber-only insight (and spice) into awards season. Read all about it and subscribe before our debut podcast episode on Aug. 1 — I promise you won’t want to miss it, and for just $5 a month, you really can’t afford not to subscribe.
Okay, enough about us — we have Emmy nominees! Chris and I went live on Substack earlier to react to the nominations as they were announced (and also reveal the launch of the After Party). You can rewatch the video below, and you’ll be able to hear our conversation on the podcast episode coming out later, which also includes a quick check-in with Adolescence star Erin Doherty (subscribe to the Prestige Junkie pod and listen here). Doherty is one of several Adolescence nominees this year, along with co-creator and star Stephen Graham and breakout youngster Owen Cooper, who, at 15, is the youngest person ever nominated for supporting actor in a limited series. Doherty, who played Princess Anne on seasons 3 and 4 of The Crown, rightfully is positively giddy about her first-ever Emmy nomination — and confident that she and her collaborators will be having the most fun of anyone at the September ceremony.
Now that I’ve had a bit more time to sift through the nominations, here are the major surprises that jumped out at me, including a few that entirely upended my expectations for how the Emmy process works.
1. Hacks vs. The Studio may be an even tighter race than we thought
I think we all knew The Bear was unlikely to repeat its feat from last year of breaking the record for nominations for a comedy series. Still, I’m not sure anyone expected The Studio to tie it. With a field-leading 23 nominations, The Studio is set up as the big heavyweight of its arena, particularly with last year’s winner, Hacks, down in its nomination total, from 16 last year to 14 (with supporting actor contender Paul W. Downs among the day’s most notable snubs).
But that also doesn’t tell the whole story. The Studio’s nomination total is boosted by a whopping five nominations in guest actor alone (congratulations to first-time acting nominees Ron Howard and Martin Scorsese!). Although Hacks missed out on some acting nominations it has received in the past, like Downs and guest actress contender Kaitlin Olson, it also scored a well-deserved nod for Julianne Nicholson and a somewhat surprising mention for Robby Hoffman. So the love for Hacks certainly hasn’t faded, at least compared to The Bear’s drop from that record-breaking 23 nominations last year to 13 this year, including misses in the writing and directing categories for creator Christopher Storer.
We always thought the comedy race would likely come down to Hacks vs. The Studio, with Hacks given an incumbent’s boost. Now I think it could be closer to a 50-50 race.
2. Severance is even stronger than we realized
And speaking of Apple shows with a lot to celebrate today — Severance boasted an enormous 27 nominations, the most of any series, and it overperformed in all kinds of categories, from first-time acting nominations for Zach Cherry, Britt Lower and Tramell Tillman to directing nominations for Jessica Lee Gagné and Ben Stiller. It even got a choreography nomination for the marching band in the finale!
Not to turn both the comedy and drama series races into faceoffs between Apple and HBO but… that’s kind of what they are. Severance’s closest competitor in the drama series race, HBO Max’s The Pitt, scored a comparatively small 13 nominations for its freshman season. However, with three acting nods (lead actor Noah Wyle, supporting actress Katherine LaNasa and guest nominee Shawn Hatosy), two for directing, one for writing and several other key nominations, including casting, The Pitt is clearly still very competitive.
With two seasons of buzz behind it and plenty of attention for its technical achievements, Severance may have more of the edge than I expected. But with The Pitt now back in production in Los Angeles — which executive producers John Wells, R. Scott Gemmill and Wyle called out in their joint statement, praising their “fantastic Los Angeles-based team” — and all trends in television headed toward more classic network TV-inspired shows, there may still be time for momentum to shift.
3. It’s good to be an actor on an Apple show
Maybe we should have realized this when The Morning Show scored an absurd nine acting nominations last year, but this year makes the trend apparent: Emmy voters care about actors on Apple shows, even if they don’t pay much attention to the show itself. Cate Blanchett received one of the two nominations for her splashy but largely overlooked Apple limited series, Disclaimer. Brian Tyree Henry was the sole nominee for his limited series Dope Thief. Add that to the whopping four acting nominees for Presumed Innocent, including nods for Bill Camp and Ruth Negga, Sharon Horgan’s surprise inclusion for Bad Sisters and what we’ve already discussed for Severance and The Studio, and Apple is fielding a remarkable 31 acting nominees across all fields.
Somehow, that doesn’t include Jon Hamm, an 18-time Emmy nominee and past winner whose Apple series, Your Friends & Neighbors, scored its sole nomination for its main title theme music. I blame the unnecessarily small field of five for lead actors in all categories — a total decided each year based on overall Emmy submissions — which led to a lot of today’s snubs. Still, don’t feel too bad for the former Don Draper. Based on how Apple seems to be faring overall with voters — and with the possibility Hamm scores another nomination for The Morning Show, which is back in September — Hamm could push his career tally to 20 by this time next year.
4. It was a great day for streamers… unless you’re Prime Video
It’s not just Apple and HBO Max that seem to be winning the streaming wars today, even if they’re the likeliest champs in nearly all of the comedy and drama categories. Netflix, powered by both its limited series hit Adolescence and the sheer tonnage of its shows, scored 120 nominations in total, despite some surprising snubs we’ll get to later. Disney+, powered mainly by Andor, earned 40 nominations, and Hulu had a relatively quiet year for its flagship hit Only Murders in the Building (seven overall nominations, a huge drop from its 21 nods last year), but still managed to net 22 nominations total.
Then there’s Prime Video, whose 12 total Emmy nominations read like a debris-strewn battlefield. The already canceled ballet series Étoile managed to score two nominations for its choreography and cinematography, the latter being particularly impressive given the competitiveness of that field (although, given that cinematographer M. David Mullen is a three-time Emmy winner for his work on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, perhaps recognition was expected). The second season of the wildly expensive The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, once intended as Amazon’s version of Game of Thrones, earned a single nomination for its visual effects; it earned six nominations for its first season.
Amazon’s genuine breakout hit The Boys did manage four nominations despite airing its most recent season a full year ago, including a guest actor nod for the indefatigable Giancarlo Esposito, now a six-time nominee. But given that The Boys is a previous drama series nominee, and that Prime Video had a breakthrough for a genre series in last year’s 16 nominations for Fallout, that’s a pretty paltry showing.
I guess the good news for Prime Video is that there’s always next year — Fallout is scheduled to return for a second season, with a third already in the works.
5. Somebody Somewhere proves it’s never too late to build momentum
Because the supporting acting categories weren’t announced on the livestream, I had to scour through the PDF to come across what might be the single most surprising nomination of the day — Jeff Hiller’s inclusion for best supporting actor in a comedy series. I’ve known all along that this category in particular would include surprises. Still, I truly never expected the gentle HBO series, which aired its third and final season last fall, to have a last-minute Emmy breakthrough.
Not only that, but series star Bridget Everett was nominated for writing the show’s final episode, alongside series creators Paul Thureen and Hannah Bos. We’ve seen critical darlings break through in the writing categories before — it’s the only place that Girls5Eva or The Other Two ever got significant recognition — but the nod for Hiller suggests a broader recognition. It’s enough to make me really reconsider whether it’s ever too late for a show to have its Emmy breakthrough, or if any critical darling is ever too small to get noticed. It’s a nice thought, and one well-suited to Somebody, Somewhere’s spirit of redemption, too.
6. Surprising snubs for SNL hosts
With the help of its anniversary specials and documentaries that earned 16 nominations of their own, Saturday Night Live had its usual robust presence among this year’s nominees. But for the first time since 2008, believe it or not, the show fielded zero nominees in the guest acting categories, where people like Dave Chappelle, Eddie Murphy, Justin Timberlake, Maya Rudolph and Betty White have all previously won Emmys for hosting the show.
I thought we would at least get a Wicked reunion for guest actress in a comedy, with Cynthia Erivo for her bravura turn on Poker Face (who did get nominated) and Ariana Grande for hosting SNL in October (who didn’t). Blame largely falls to The Studio, which claimed five of the six spots for guest actors in a comedy (Jon Bernthal in The Bear being the odd man out) and fielded Zoë Kravitz in the guest actress category. I’ll miss Ariana, but I wouldn’t trade anything for Julianne Nicholson’s nod for playing Dance Mom on Hacks.
7. The Totally Snubbed Club: Squid Game, Yellowjackets, Industry
It’s still a global phenomenon — the latest Luminate streaming numbers have it as the second-most watched show in America — but Squid Game may as well not exist in the eyes of Emmy voters. Despite earning 14 nominations for its breakthrough first season, winning six awards — including best actor in a drama for Lee Jung-jae, who beat Succession actors Jeremy Strong and Brian Cox, Better Call Saul lead Bob Odenkirk, Ozark’s Jason Bateman and Severance star Adam Scott — the second season was left out of today’s Emmy nominations entirely. Given the more muted reception for the second season, it’s not a major surprise, and the recently released third season is unlikely to reverse the trend next year. But I’m curious what this might portend for the long-awaited final season of Stranger Things, an Emmy juggernaut in years past that may also find its time has passed.
Another hit that Emmy voters seemed to have no interest in is the Paramount+ series Landman, continuing the almost complete Emmy shutout for shows in the Taylor Sheridan universe. One of the most prolific and influential creators on television, Sheridan remains anathema to voters. If Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren couldn’t change that with 1923, I’m not sure how we thought this would.
More rough news for the Paramount/Viacom family came via Yellowjackets, which earned zero nominations for its third season. And though I think it was always optimistic to hope that HBO’s British import Industry might break through for its acclaimed third season, it will have to remain the kind of show that’s beloved by cool kids but not voters. But hey, if Somebody Somewhere can break through, there’s no reason Industry can’t someday have its moment. (Writers’ branch, step up for season 4!)
8. Netflix’s actors can celebrate — but what about everybody else?
The surprise inclusion of Uzo Aduba in the lead actress in a comedy category, even though Netflix has already canceled her series, The Residence, says a lot about the visibility that comes from being on that platform. Even if people don’t necessarily love your show, they know it exists. (The show scored three additional craft nominations as well.) The same likely goes for Colman Domingo’s inclusion in supporting actor in a comedy, the sole nomination for his Netflix show The Four Seasons.
But then consider the fate of Nobody Wants This, a breakout hit for Netflix last fall that, wonderfully, has earned the first-ever Emmy nominations for its stars, Kristen Bell and Adam Brody. Given the show’s popularity and creator Erin Foster’s tireless work on the campaign trail, you might have expected additional nods for writing, directing, or for its key supporting players like Justine Lupe and Timothy Simons. Instead, it’s just Bell, Brody, and a very well-deserved comedy series nomination — and, I suppose, hope that a second season might bring even more.
Because Emmy nominations come from peer groups — actors vote for actors, production designers for production designers, and so on — we can assume that these Netflix comedies are possibly more popular with actors than the rest of the Academy. Personally, I think a Bell/Brody romance ought to have universal appeal, but perhaps we have to wait for a second season for it to catch on with the rest of the industry.