2019 Emmy Nominations Revealed: Game of Thrones Leads the Pack

It’s that time of the year again—the glorious season where we reflect back on all of the primetime content we consumed from the past year, both good and very, very bad, and compare our own thoughts, opinions and hot takes to those of the Television Academy.

The nominations for the 2019 Primetime Emmy Awards finally arrived on Tuesday morning via livestream, and though the Academy didn’t give us everything on our wish list, they did bring some decent competition to the table.

Don’t expect any fanfare for past Emmy darlings The Crown, Stranger Things, The Handmaid’s Tale or Westworld, all of which chose to sit out of the Emmys season this year.

Seeing that it missed the cutoff for Emmy eligibility last season, AMC’s Better Call Saul fared well this time around, scoring two nominations for Lead Actor in a Drama Series and Best Drama Series. Likewise, relative newcomers Killing Eve and Ozark came in strong this year after each took home only one nomination in 2018.

Other newcomers receiving major Emmys attention are Showtime’s Escape at Dannemora, FX’s Pose and Netflix’s When They See Us, the latter of which secured two separate Lead Actress in a Limited Series nominations for Niecy Nash and Aunjanue Ellis.

Emmy mainstays Game of Thrones and This Is Us both expectedly racked up nominations for Best Drama Series and Lead Actor and Actress in a Drama Series, with the former show earning a record-setting 32 nods overall, the most of any nominee this year. HBO’s acclaimed Chernobyl mini-series also scored itself a Best Limited Series nomination—which we can’t say we didn’t see coming—but it’s up against stiff competition, namely When They See Us and Fosse/Verdon. The nominations are already a win for HBO, though, as the pay-cabler has broken its own record for most Emmy nominations in a single year.

Rachel Brosnahan and Sandra Oh were both re-selected for this year’s Lead Actress in a Comedy and Drama Series categories after first receiving nominations in 2018 for their roles in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Killing Eve, respectively. The same goes for Sterling K. Brown’s and Milo Ventimiglia’s performances in This Is Us, which scored both actors Lead Actor in a Drama Series nominations in 2017, 2018 and now 2019. Not bad!

There’s nothing to be said about the nominations for Best Reality/Competition Series, which truly appear to be unchanged from the 2017 and 2018 Emmy circuits. Big whoop.

There were some surprises, however: Joey King’s nomination for her performance in The Act, along with Schitt’s Creek’s massive pull, and Succession and Fleabag’s (!) Best Series nominations, were all unexpected.

To quote Paste editor-in-chief Josh Jackson: “At least The Big Bang Theory wasn’t nominated again.”

The 71th annual Primetime Emmys will air Sunday, Sept. 17 on FOX. Check out the complete list of Emmy nominees below:

LEAD ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE
Mahershala Ali, “True Detective”
Benicio del Toro, “Escape at Dannemora”
Hugh Grant, “A Very English Scandal”
Jared Harris, “Chernobyl”
Jharrel Jerome, “When They See Us”
Sam Rockwell, “Fosse/Verdon”

LEAD ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE
Amy Adams, “Sharp Objects”
Patricia Arquette, “Escape at Dannemora”
Aunjanue Ellis, “When They See Us”
Joey King, “The Act”
Niecy Nash, “When They See Us”
Michelle Williams, “Fosse/Verdon”

LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Anthony Anderson, “blackish”
Don Cheadle, “Black Monday”
Ted Danson, “The Good Place”
Michael Douglas, “The Kominsky Method”
Bill Hader, “Barry”
Eugene Levy, “Schitt’s Creek”

LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Christina Applegate, “Dead to Me”
Rachel Brosnahan, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
Julia-Louis Dreyfus, “Veep”
Natasha Lyonne, “Russian Doll”
Catherine O’Hara, “Schitt’s Creek”
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, “Fleabag”

LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Jason Bateman, “Ozark”
Sterling K. Brown, “This Is Us”
Kit Harington, “Game of Thrones”
Bob Odenkirk, “Better Call Saul”
Billy Porter, “Pose”
Milo Ventimiglia, “This Is Us”

LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Emilia Clarke, “Game of Thrones”
Jodie Comer, “Killing Eve”
Viola Davis, “How To Get Away With Murder”
Laura Linney, “Ozark”
Mandy Moore, “This Is Us”
Sandra Oh, “Killing Eve”
Robin Wright, “House of Cards”

REALITY/COMPETITION SERIES
“The Amazing Race”
“American Ninja Warrior”
“Nailed It!”
“RuPaul’s Drag Race”
“Top Chef”
“The Voice”

VARIETY TALK SERIES
“The Daily Show with Trevor Noah”
“Full Frontal with Samantha Bee”
“Jimmy Kimmel Live”
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”
“The Late Late Show with James Corden”
“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert”

LIMITED SERIES
“Chernobyl”
“Escape at Dannemora”
“Fosse/Verdon”
“Sharp Objects”
“When They See Us”

COMEDY SERIES
“Barry”
“Fleabag”
“The Good Place”
“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
“Russian Doll”
“Schitt’s Creek”
“Veep”

DRAMA SERIES
“Better Call Saul”
“Bodyguard”
“Game of Thrones”
“Killing Eve”
“Ozark”
“Pose”
“Succession”
“This Is Us”