My Year’s 30 Best Emmy Nominations, Ranked: Part 1
I count down in a three-part series. Plus: What is Televerse, and why does it matter to the Television Academy?
Did you hear that starting pistol? Final Emmy voting begins today, and Television Academy members have the next nine days to sift through literally thousands of hours of television to pick the best of the best.
The Academy itself is hoping it made the job easier this year with the first-ever Televerse, a hybrid of a fan convention and FYC event that had a whole lot of TV stars traveling to downtown Los Angeles late last week. I was there too, moderating an onstage panel with an exceptional lineup of former Traitors contestants and the show’s Emmy-nominated host, Alan Cumming (look for that one on the Prestige Junkie podcast feed last week), as well as a very fun reunion with Nobody Wants This creator Erin Foster and most of the show’s cast. When I tell you that Jackie Tohn brought the house down by standing up to recreate a moment when Kristen Bell spotted her gray hair, you’ll have to believe me.
Held at the J.W. Marriott Convention Center, just a stone’s throw from the Peacock Theater — where the Emmys will take place Sept. 14 — Televerse felt like a somewhat calmer version of Comic-Con but certainly busier than your average FYC event featuring just one show. After leaving my Traitors panel, I accidentally barged into a green room where the cast of Paradise was preparing for a Zoom; elsewhere in the building at that moment, writer Beau Willimon (an executive producer on the Apple TV+ Emmy contender Severance and writer on the Emmy-nominated Disney+ show Andor) was leading a workshop on breaking story.
“It’s a natural extension of the Academy’s existing programs,” Television Academy President Maury McIntyre told me via e-mail. “You can’t celebrate television without the audience. And a festival gives us the opportunity to connect our nearly 30,000 members, who have the professional experience and deepest insight into the most compelling work being made in television, with that audience.”
It was hard to tell in the room how many attendees were Emmy voters (who are used to filling their calendars with these kinds of panels during voting windows) and the ticket-buying public. Some of the awards strategists I spoke with seemed perplexed by the challenge of preparing their clients to talk to an audience that contained both. But given how hard it can be to put on these kinds of events in the second phase of Emmy voting, when many contenders are on vacation or simply tired of flogging their shows, there does seem to be an advantage in having a central, tentpole event to plan all the other ancillary FYC events around.
To wit: On Friday, with Televerse in full swing, Apple partnered with Erewhon to provide free smoothies to customers who uttered key phrases from either The Studio or Severance. Later that evening, I stopped by a pop-up event on Sunset Boulevard for my beloved Andor, where copies of an Andor zine were available to be signed by series creator Tony Gilroy. In between selfies with Star Wars fans, Gilroy told me a bit about his upcoming, music-focused film Behemoth!, which is shooting in Los Angeles later this year. But I think we were all a bit surprised when the TMZ tour bus came rolling by, with people screaming out the window at the commotion, presumably assuming there was a movie star somewhere in the scrum.
It’s not always easy to feel like you’re catching Emmy fever in Los Angeles in August; even the awards strategists have often moved on to fall festival season. But at Televerse, Erewhon and, for that moment, on Sunset Boulevard, TV’s best shows found their way to the spotlight again.
The Year’s 30 Best Emmy Nominations
I, too, cannot stop talking about the Emmys — even though with my fall festival team now drafted, I’m eagerly awaiting the first reviews out of Venice. (Sign up for Prestige Junkie After Party right now to watch our Fall Festival Draft, and get a jump on the Oscar race today!) Starting today and continuing through Thursday’s newsletter and a special bonus Friday edition, I’ll bring you my exclusive, 100-percent accurate* ranked list of the 30 best Emmy nominations this year. (*And yes, this is deadpan.)
Now, sure, there is no such thing as best Emmy nominations — particularly when you compare nominees across categories, like pitting a supporting actress nominee against a production designer. At the same time, there are nominations at every awards show that thrill me more than others, with only a select handful of them truly exemplifying TV at its best. That’s what I’m trying to get at here: not the strongest contenders or my favorite picks, but the nominations that made me think television might be okay after all. Perhaps after all this, you’ll agree.
For an added challenge, I limited myself to one nomination per show. So as tempting as it might be to single out both Martin Scorsese and Zoe Kravitz for embodying the best of The Studio, spreading the wealth seemed the most in the spirit of this list.
Ahead, #30-21 on my ranked list. Come back on Thursday to see the middle third, and as always, please tell me what I got wrong: katey@theankler.com
#30: Host for a Game Show: Colin Jost, Pop Culture Jeopardy
Though he’s been at the desk long enough to now qualify as an institution unto himself, Colin Jost has rarely been included among the list of Saturday Night Live’s best “Weekend Update” hosts. So consider me surprised when he emerged as such a lively, affectionate presence as the host of Prime Video’s Pop Culture Jeopardy, which has bafflingly not yet been renewed for a second season. I’m a bit biased, as past and future Prestige Junkie podcast guest Jordan Hoffman acquitted himself quite well on the show’s second episode. But Jordan also had praise for Jost’s skill as a host in person, taking on a job that Alex Trebek iconically held for so long and making it his own. I’m not sure what Jost’s chances are for beating the current host of regular Jeopardy!, Ken Jennings, but maybe an underdog win would help this delightful spinoff get the second season it deserves.
#29: Contemporary Hairstyling: The White Lotus
Though everybody inevitably winds up talking about the operatic plot twists and lived-in performances on The White Lotus, every season lives and dies on its details. I could celebrate the perfectly expensive caftans worn by all the female characters, or the detailed close-ups of the menacing nature at this luxe Thailand resort — the show is nominated for its costumes and cinematography among its 23 nominations. But today I’m choosing to focus on the hair, all pitch-perfect for the characters and the show’s entire sense of peering in on a rarefied world. From Leslie Bibb’s sleek bob, seemingly immune to tropical humidity, to Walton Goggins’ seemingly constantly wet hair, every character’s hair tells a story, and keeping it all intact while filming in the jungle — even a posh jungle — cannot have been an easy feat for hair department head Miia Kovero (a winner for The White Lotus season 2) and her team.
#28: Supporting Actress in a Comedy: Janelle James, Abbott Elementary
Abbott Elementary has fallen into a kind of Emmy middle ground. The show is appreciated enough for its warm humor and genuinely innovative ideas that it gets Emmy nominations. Still, it’s not quite new enough or undeniable enough to compete for the top prize. That doesn’t mean Abbott hasn’t caught the fancy of Emmy voters before: Creator and star Quinta Brunson has won Emmys for both writing (for season 1) and acting (for season 2), and Sheryl Lee Ralph gave one of the best Emmy acceptance speeches of all time when she won best supporting actress in a comedy for season 1. But Ralph’s co-star and fellow four-time Abbott nominee Janelle James has been doing equally brilliant work across Abbott’s four seasons, making her an easy contender to celebrate from this fantastic ensemble. It hasn’t happened yet, and I don’t expect her to be the Emmy winner this year. But I’ll continue rooting for her moment to arrive.
#27: Music Supervision: The Last of Us, “The Price”
This one is for my colleague and editor Christopher Rosen, who was among the legion of Pearl Jam fans thrilled to see the band’s 2013 song “Future Days” featured in The Last of Us season 2’s penultimate episode “The Price,” aka the big Joel and Ellie flashback. The song is also a key element in the game, but clearly, Pearl Jam was so excited to be included in the HBO series that it inspired the band to release a new EP of the songs featured on the show. Now that’s the power of music supervision — shout out to The Last of Us nominees Evyen Klean, Ian Broucek and Scott Hanau.
#26: Limited Series Score: Thomas & Julia Newman, Monsters
For the haunting score for Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, Thomas and Julia Newman have made what I am pretty sure is history: the first father-daughter pair of composers to share an Emmy nomination. Thomas Newman is, of course, a Hollywood legend, a 15-time Oscar nominee and Emmy winner for Six Feet Under’s unforgettable theme. Julia Newman started her career within the past decade and has worked both alongside her father and on her own for shows like Doctor Odyssey. The Newmans are part of the famed musical Newman family, but they’re not even the only dynasty in this category. The Penguin composer, Mick Giacchino, also nominated here, is the son of Michael Giacchino.
#25: Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or TV Movie: Brian Tyree Henry, Dope Thief
Brian Tyree Henry, easily among the best actors of his generation, already had two Emmy nominations to his name, for a guest role on This Is Us and his star-making turn on Atlanta. But this nod for the Apple TV+ series Dope Thief, in which he plays a small-time crook who poses as a DEA agent to rob drug dealers, feels special. Not only is it the show’s lone nomination, but it’s precisely what happened at the Oscars when Henry received the sole nod for the tiny indie Causeway (also an Apple TV+ release). He’s establishing a very unusual reputation as the kind of performer so compelling he can get awards attention for anything he does, even if the rest of the project doesn’t.
#24: Directing for a Variety Special: Liz Patrick, SNL50: The Anniversary Special
When I spoke to director Liz Patrick and her Saturday Night Live collaborators, it became clear just how much work goes into an average episode of SNL, and how February’s anniversary special ramped up the pressure in a way few of us could imagine. Well, actually, a lot of them could imagine it, having been with the show during the 40th anniversary celebrations back in 2015. But Patrick, a veteran TV director, only started with SNL in 2021, which makes the episode’s fluid camera work and endless cameo-wrangling all the more impressive.
#23: Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Michael Urie, Shrinking
The feel-good Apple series finally got its big Emmy breakout this year, going from just two nominations for its first season to seven for its second, including long overdue recognition for both Urie and his fellow supporting actor nominee Harrison Ford. With all due respect to a literal living legend, though, it was Urie who truly stepped into his power this past season, best exemplified by a monologue he delivered twice (watch it above), with escalating comic effect each time.
#22: Guest Actress in a Comedy Series: Cynthia Erivo, Poker Face
Playing your own twin continues to be the hottest trend in TV and film this year (see also Sinners and Mickey 17). But Cynthia Erivo truly set a new bar for the genre with her appearance as quintuplets on the season 2 premiere of Poker Face. Sure, her Wicked performance is the one that earned Erivo an Oscar nomination and made her a cultural icon. However, Poker Face allowed her to trot out a Valley Girl voice, a fake French accent and some seriously impressive wigs, all in a single scene. Even for those of us who thought we understood the extent of Erivo’s talent, it was a revelation.
21: Variety Special, Pre-Recorded: Conan O’Brien: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
When Conan O’Brien accepted his Mark Twain prize at a Washington, D.C., ceremony in late March, it was just a few weeks after his triumphant Oscar hosting gig, and already clear that the newly re-elected Donald Trump was planning a Kennedy Center takeover that would make events like this challenging for at least the next four years. Now that the Kennedy Center Honors have been fully MAGA-fied, the event — which premiered May 4 on Netflix — feels all the more special, particularly given how O’Brien managed to address the moment with bracing sincerity. “Twain was suspicious of populism, jingoism, imperialism, the money-obsessed mania of the Gilded Age, and any expression of mindless American might or self-importance,” he said during his pointed speech. “Above all, Twain was a patriot in the best sense of the word. He loved America but knew it was deeply flawed. Twain wrote, ‘Patriotism is supporting your country all of the time and your government when it deserves it.’” O’Brien didn’t mention Trump once during his speech. He didn’t have to either.
Come back Thursday for #20-11!