The Best, Worst & Weirdest: Emmy Campaign Awards, Phase I
As voting closes, I name who won the season (Jason Isaacs), who didn't ('Étoile') and the case of the missing 'Bear'
Today is the day, Emmy voters! If your nomination ballot is not submitted by 10 p.m. PT, then all of it — the copies of Emmy Magazine sent to your house, the FYC ads on coffee cups, the billboards bleaching in the sun on Sunset — will have all been for nothing. Exercise your right to painfully choose between the supporting actresses on The White Lotus, and do it quickly!
After writing five newsletters last week about the overarching themes of this Emmy season, I’m as surprised as you are that I still have anything to say about television at all. But with phase 1 at last winding to a close, and all the strategists and Emmy hopefuls taking a break between now and the nominations announcement on July 15, I can’t help but want to take stock.
For most of this season, it’s felt like the first truly “normal” Emmy season in quite a while, with no strike delays, pandemics, or — god willing — natural disasters forcing changes. Given the news from Iran this weekend, the vibe may well adjust in the weeks ahead. But for now, we can take the opportunity to look back and see how these campaigns performed. Who stayed on message most effectively, and who made the most baffling choices? Most importantly, to at least some of us, who had the best swag?
On Thursday, I’ll turn my attention once again to the world of film, where there’s been a surprising amount of revelations about how the fall awards calendar is going to shake out. But for now: Emmy Phase 1 Superlatives. Don’t forget to sign my yearbook, HAGS!
Most Consistent Messaging: ‘Filmed in LA’
I wrote about this in depth last week, so I won’t belabor the point too much. However, it cannot be emphasized enough how much everyone was leaning into their L.A. productions, regardless of whether their shows had anything to do with California at all. Right at the entrance to Netflix’s Tudum theater, where they hosted multiple FYC screening events, there was an enormous poster with a map of the city pointing to where various Netflix shows were filmed on set. The tagline? “The Show You Love In the City You Love”
Playing to the home crowd is a wise move for the Emmys, which are overwhelmingly voted on by L.A. residents, unlike the much more international Oscars. But we’ll see how much this hometown pride is actually in evidence among the nominees. Netflix’s own Adolescence will surely hoover up a ton of nominations in the limited series race, and is as English as spotted dick. Andor, Slow Horses and The Diplomat ought to make a mark for U.K. production in the drama series race, and though the L.A.-set Hacks and The Studio will likely dominate the comedy categories, don’t forget about The Bear — the Chicagoans surely haven’t. And speaking of The Bear…
Stealthiest Campaign: The Bear
If you somehow did forget about The Bear, I can’t exactly blame you. After losing the best comedy series trophy to Hacks last fall in a shocking upset, the FX series has been lying remarkably low through this part of Emmy season. In L.A. a few weeks ago, I spotted some small billboards that featured close-ups of the cast and a few of the phrases Jeremy Allen White’s Carmy repeats as mantras for his restaurant, like “vibrant collaboration” and “no repeats.” One of them really seemed to sum it up: “less is more.”
The team behind The Bear, from creator Christopher Storer on down, has done the full-court promotional press for Emmy seasons past; this year, it has been hard to spot any of them, save the occasional appearance on a panel or brief profile for a supporting player. Meanwhile, the show’s comedy series competition, like Hacks and The Studio, have been absolutely everywhere; even Martin Short, presumably emboldened by that SAG Award win for Only Murders in the Building earlier this year, has been putting in time on Zoom.
So why are they hiding? I’m guessing FX realized that The Bear was a bit overexposed in its first two seasons, when the show was a genuine phenomenon that was still dogged by chatter that it wasn’t really a comedy, and as vulnerable as anything else to wearing out its welcome. Even after significantly scaling back its FYC efforts, The Bear is still very much a contender — you’d be hard pressed to find a pundit who doesn’t predict it will at least be nominated in all the categories it’s previously won. And the real strategy may still be ahead.
The fourth season of The Bear debuts all of its episodes this Wednesday, and as far as I know, no one has received advance screeners. If the new season is a hit, or at least an improvement on the unevenly received third season, it could be precisely the boost the show needs going into Emmys phase 2. Like Carmy planning an elaborate recipe, it could all come together in the final moments.
Most Baffling Strategy: Amazon Canceling Étoile
I’m not sure how likely it was that the Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino-created ballet series Étoile was going to be the strongest contender in the comedy race, particularly once it became clear there were only five slots to be had in the lead acting category, making it a tough road for star Luke Kirby. But surely there was at least some chance, at least before Prime Video pulled the plug on the series earlier this month, despite the fact that it had initially been ordered for two full seasons.
Could Amazon have just waited until tomorrow, when Emmy ballots were safely in hand, before letting this go public? Presumably, there were some contracts or other factors at play that made it not worthwhile to save face. But when even creators as venerable as the Palladinos get faced with this kind of indignity, no wonder everyone in this industry is scared all the time.
Best Hustle: Jason Isaacs
With so many actors being everywhere this season, it feels a little unfair to single anyone out. But not only has The White Lotus star Jason Isaacs put in the work, he’s been refreshingly upfront about it. “I’ve just been publicizing this enormous show that actually needed no publicity at all,” he told me in my first interview of this Emmy season, just after the White Lotus aired its finale. In the wide-ranging Vulture interview in which he also confirmed how much each cast member was paid ($40,000 per episode), he cheerfully weighed in on being asked about wearing a prosthetic penis for the show: “People can ask me whatever the hell they like.”
Isaacs is locked in a tight race in the best supporting actor in a drama category, fending off not only his co-stars Walton Goggins, Sam Rockwell and Patrick Schwarzenegger, but the Severance duo of John Turturro and Tramell Tillman; he seems aware that every little bit of publicity helps. But there were two moments when I realized he truly is the hustle MVP of the season: He was one of the vanishingly few famous faces present in Washington, D.C. during the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner weekend, lobbying for funding for the National Endowment for the Arts while also rubbing elbows. And then he turned up at an FYC event for, of all things, The Traitors.
You won’t see him in the official photos from the event, but I saw it myself, in a selfie Alan Cumming showed off to a handful of people during the lunch event for the reality show last month. In a group shot featuring many of last season’s contestants, Cumming pointed to “my mate Jason” — a man in the back wearing a hat but unmistakably Isaacs. The two have been friends at least since this incredibly endearing Getty photo from the 2003 premiere of Peter Pan (a movie Isaacs called his “lowest” point during this wonderful Emmys press run). So Isaacs turned out for his friend Cumming, sure. But the fact that Emmy voters were in the vicinity may have been a bonus.
Best Use of Gossip: The White Lotus
This is also in some ways an award for Isaacs, who did his part to fan the flames of speculation about rancor on the show’s Thailand set. (It had “fewer deaths but just as much drama,” he claimed.) But there was also the whole thing with Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood, which involved Instagram unfollowing and alleged drama. The chatter got so bad that Goggins reportedly marched out of an interview for an unrelated project when asked about his White Lotus co-star. Fortunately, the two eventually sat down for a joint interview to “set the record straight” and have since appeared together at Emmy events for the series. Personally, I don’t think we’ll ever know exactly who hated whom on the set, but we do know who killed it at karaoke, again thanks to Issacs.
Best Overdog Posing as Underdog: YouTube
The FYC event I attended for YouTube in May was a bit of an odd duck. YouTube sponsored it, but the three shows being celebrated — Hot Ones, Good Mythical Morning and Challenge Accepted — were technically self-submitting, part of YouTube’s efforts not to have to pick favorites among its thousands of creators. And even though it was as lavish as any party I attended, with food trucks and dessert stations and multiple photo ops, the underlying theme was a small ask to be invited into the Emmy club.
That day, the pitch seemed pretty persuasive — multiple Emmy voters admitted they’d barely heard of any of these shows, but were willing to consider that they deserved a spot in the relatively low-profile short-form categories. (Hot Ones, by far the most well-known of the shows, is competing against the likes of Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel in the talk series category.)
YouTube may well be the behemoth that eventually swallows Hollywood — the platform accounts for 11 percent of all watch time on TV, a massive number compared to its streaming brethren (Netflix is at 8.5 percent) — but when it comes to the Emmys, the service is still playing by other people’s rules. “I’ve shared this with my colleagues at the Television Academy,” YouTube CEO Neal Mohan told my boss, Janice Min, at Cannes Lions last week. “In order for an award show to remain relevant in today’s world, how could you be ignoring this?” If the Emmys do finally embrace YouTube shows in a significant way, we’ll know that the underdog strategy actually paid off.
Best Voter Perk: The Pitt
With the second season of The Pitt going into production just as Emmy campaign season was heating up, the timing was perfect for an old-fashioned but extremely enviable campaign strategy: an invitation to tour the show’s set on the Warner Bros. lot.
The set of The Pitt, as director Amanda Marsalis explained to me last week, is uniquely immersive; the lighting is built into the set design, and there are no false walls, so when you walk on set it’s like you really are walking into the emergency department at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital. I haven’t gotten any firsthand reports from Television Academy members who were present. Still, I imagine a lot of people living their Nurse Dana dreams, spinning in a swivel chair and waiting for their turn to tell Dr. Robby it’s all going to be okay.
Best Swag: Apple TV+
I’m not an Emmy voter, so I can’t be certain that my mailbox is representative of what actual voters are receiving. But if there’s a contest to send elaborate themed mailers or other gifts to win votes, Apple TV+ may be the last streamer competing. The fake vending machine filled with Lumon-branded products as well as some actual Apple goods was an impressive launch for Severance, only to be outdone by the box for The Studio, made to look like an actual watermarked Hollywood script. In an industry that’s constantly talking about contracting, it may no longer be a good look to send out what might be uncharitably viewed as bribes. But I swear I’m not just being swayed by the pineapple-shaped air plant holder that’s now displayed on my desk — these Apple mailers were genuinely creative, and deserve to be celebrated!
