Doesn’t it feel like we just did this? Well, we did. After the 2023 actors’ and writers’ strikes delayed the 75th Emmys ceremony to this past January, it’s already time to start looking at the nominations for the 76th Emmys that will air this September. And after a strange midseason ceremony, the hope is this awards season will be an evening out of a hectic year for TV.
But the 76th Emmys are also serving as a major turning point in the selection of nominations. The strikes acted as a dividing line; a definitive end to a certain era of accelerated production and a “sky’s the limit” mentality to what TV can offer.
The biggest changing of the guard can be seen in the Outstanding Drama Series category, where all the nominated shows except The Crown are newcomers to the categories. This comes on the sundown of a certain era of HBO that saw Succession come to an end, while also weathering a year between House of the Dragon and The Last of Us seasons.
Outstanding Drama Series is simultaneously home to shows like The Gilded Age and The Morning Show that have slowly collected more and more nominations with each passing season (The Morning Show especially has been a classic collector of a multitude of acting nominations with few wins). The remaining presence of the last season of The Crown marks the end of the era of prestige drama TV it came from. While the show is no stranger to major wins in the past (including a major sweep in 2021 that saw it win top prizes for Drama, Lead Actor, Lead Actress, and Writing, among others), a win for this season would feel more like a lifetime achievement award ala Game of Thrones’s win for its final season. But the category is also rife with shows coming right off their first seasons.
Instead, Outstanding Drama series is filled with a more unusual type of show: Hollywood’s beloved Intellectual Property. Four of the newcomers are based on existing material (videogames for Fallout, an existing movie for Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and books for Shōgun, 3 Body Problem, and Slow Horses). While IP domination has become commonplace for film blockbusters and summer release slates, seeing so many shows based on existing material in the Emmys for Drama Series indicates that the IP mindset of film has infected the TV industry as well.
What is refreshing about this drama slate is a variety of tones and genres. Seeing two sci-fi series and several thriller and mystery shows is a welcome surprise alongside the classic period dramas and Funny Actors Being Serious types that have had success in the drama category in the past. Genre offerings have long been the backbone of TV, but rarely are they given such major accolade consideration.
The comedy categories are fairly business as usual, with the only major substitution being The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel bowing out and the entrance of Palm Royale. And while there are some small wonderful surprises (The Other Two getting a writing nomination for its last season and an actor nomination for Reservation Dogs’ D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) the category is mostly a formality. Last year’s sweep of The Bear across all its nominated categories for Season 1 was likely due to many voters thinking they were voting for Season 2. So now that it’s Season 2’s time to shine, it will likely face little competition.
One of The Bear’s greatest effects is how it transformed the Guest Actor categories. Along with Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the category has become overrun with high caliber, A-list actor cameos. Especially in the case of The Bear, where most of its guest actors come from the least comedic episode of the series, “Fishes,” Outstanding Guest Actor categories have become a new place to exhibit all the talent that wants to dip their toes into television without making the full commitment.
Rounding out the main category conversation is Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, a category that has grown from afterthought to marquee event in the past 10 years. The group of nominees is almost a perfect mix of welcome returns (Fargo and True Detective got good again, for example) and newcomers. While the thinning influence of Ryan Murphy and the lack of White Lotus certainly help the well-grouped mix of shows, it’s also nice to see projects like Baby Reindeer cut through more established creative presences and gain recognition for a type of auteur-esque show that’s much more commonplace in the UK than in the US.
But Limited Series is also home to one of the most shocking admissions of the entire nominations: the lack of representation for The Sympathizer. I mean this in two ways, given the fact that the only nomination was for Robert Downey Jr. in the Outstanding Supporting Actor category, one of the only white actors in the main cast. It’s the kind of bitter joke that seems to happen more often with Oscar nominations than at the Emmys.
The largest trend that this group of nominations reflects is a holdover from last year’s shocking result: major category sweeps by singular shows. Succession, The Bear, and Beef took home an award in almost every category they were nominated for and left very little room for any other shows to make their mark. The amount of clumping of nominations this year may indicate a similar fate: for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama, The Morning Show and Shōgun account for 5 of the 7 nominations. For Supporting Actress in a Drama, The Morning Show and The Gilded Age take 6 of the 7 spots.
The prevalence of clumping and sweeps is a result of the same issue: too much TV. With so many shows warring for the TV academy’s attention, voters are more likely to vote down the line rather than try to pick out individually great performances from otherwise unremarkable shows. It’s disappointing given how it minimizes the chance for a greater variety of work to be recognized, but it’s also hard to blame the voters. There are only so many hours of the day, so when you do watch a great show, it’s easier to reward what’s in front of you than to keep searching for people to fill open spots.
The 76th Emmy nominations tell us some things we already know. Streamers dominate TV. The line of what defines a comedy show has long been crossed. But what’s most exciting about these nominations is that they are the first insight into where TV is going instead of the state it’s coming out of. So many shows getting nominations for their first seasons is hopefully indicative that the era of 2-3 seasons of a show before being canceled is ending. There are new great works being created and receiving well-earned acclaim. It’s just yet to be seen how rewarding this era may be for the viewers.
Leila Jordan is a writer and former jigsaw puzzle world record holder. Her work has appeared in Paste Magazine, the LA Times, Business Insider, Gold Derby, TheWrap, FOX Digital, The Spool, and Awards Radar. To talk about all things movies, TV, and useless trivia you can find her @galaxyleila
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