“Succession,” HBO’s operatic saga about a media dynasty and a two-time winner of best drama series, earned 27 Emmy nominations for its farewell season Wednesday morning, the most of any series.
That tally helped HBO and its companion streaming service, Max, garner the most nominations of any network, with 127 nominations. Netflix took second place with 103.
HBO dominated the Best Drama category, praising not only Succession, but also the second season of The White Lotus, as well as The Last of Us, the popular video game adaptation, and House of the Dragon. ” his Game of Thrones prequel. It was the first time since 1992 that a single broadcaster received four nominations in this category.
The Apple TV+ Awards favorite, Ted Lasso, received 21 nominations, the most of any comedy, for its third season, which is likely to be its last. The race for best comedy is turning into a showdown between Ted Lasso, The Bear, an FX show on Hulu, and ABC’s Abbott Elementary, the first network show in nine years to win the category .
While Emmy nominations day is usually a joyful occasion for the television industry to toast the industry’s best, this year’s announcement was not timed well.
More than 11,000 TV and feature film writers have been on strike for 72 days. The union, which represents 160,000 actors, has been negotiating with major Hollywood studios for over a month – their contract expires on Wednesday, just hours after the nominations were announced. Organizers have privately concluded that if the strike — or worse, two strikes — lasts another two or three weeks, they will likely have to postpone the September ceremony for months.
Filmmaker Alex R. Johnson marches with fellow members of the Writers Guild of America in Manhattan in May. Photo credit: Hilary Swift for The New York Times
Frank Scherma, chairman of the Television Academy, which organizes the Emmys, alluded to the labor disputes before the nominations were presented. “We hope that the guild negotiations can reach a fair and speedy resolution,” he said. As he said goodbye, he noted that the ceremony was “currently” scheduled for Monday, September 18.
Though Netflix fell a bit behind its top competitors in the drama and comedy categories, the streaming giant can at least count on having the two top picks in the Emmys’ limited series category: Ryan Murphy’s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story ‘ which garnered 13 total nominations and ‘Beef’ which became a hit for the streamer.
‘The Crown’, Netflix’s lavish chronicle of the British royal family and winner of Best Drama at the 2021 Emmys, was also nominated in that category this year – although some critics had a hard time getting to grips with the show’s fifth season, in which they were introduced to a new cast.
The moment of triumph for HBO comes at a time of transition for the network, which has been operated by debt-ridden parent company Warner Bros. Discovery since last year. The network is now part of a streaming service that has removed its callsigns (Bye HBO Max, hello Max). And for the first time, HBO is in the process of licensing popular older shows — “Insecure,” and soon, “Six Feet Under,” “Band of Brothers,” and “True Blood” — to its arch-rival Netflix, from Warner Bros. Discovery, to raise money .
HBO had the three most nominated shows: “Succession” (27), “The Last of Us” (24) and “The White Lotus” (23). The Best Actor in a Drama race evolves into another Roy family “Succession” competition, pitting one-time winner Jeremy Strong against two-time nominee Kieran Culkin and four-time nominee (and one-time winner for a miniseries from The Year 2000) Brian Cox. And HBO won Best Supporting Actor in a Drama category outright: eight out of eight, all split between cast members from “Succession” and “The White Lotus.”
Of course, the last time a single network received four nominations in the Best Drama category 31 years ago, it went away empty-handed. It was 1992 when NBC received nominations for I’ll Fly Away, LA Law, Law & Order, and Quantum Leap. All four series lost to this year’s winner, CBS’ “Northern Exposure.”
This year’s Best Actor in a Comedy category pits Jason Sudeikis, who has won two years in a row for the title role in Ted Lasso, against Jeremy Allen White, who plays an ambitious and concerned chef in The Bear. The other nominees in this category are Bill Hader for “Barry”, Jason Segel for “Shrinking” and Martin Short for “Only Murders in the Building”.
Price predictions suggest that Quinta Brunson could be on track to victory for Abbott Elementary. Brunson received the Emmys writer’s honor for her good-natured ABC work place comedy last year and would be the first black woman to win the award for best actress in a comedy since Isabel Sanford won for The Jeffersons in 1981. She meets Christina Applegate from Dead to Me, Rachel Brosnahan from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Natasha Lyonne from Poker Face and Jenna Ortega from Wednesday.
This year, the Emmys are crowning a new late night king. John Oliver, whose HBO show “Last Week Tonight” won Best Variety Talk Show for seven straight years, has been moved to a new Emmy category this year — Outstanding Written Variety Show.
This gives presenters like Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel or Seth Meyers an insider tip to win the award for best talk series for their current late-night shows for the first time. (Colbert’s legacy Comedy Central series The Colbert Report won best variety series twice, in 2013 and 2014.) Trevor Noah, who recently left The Daily Show, received a nomination for his final months as chairman and Noah’s predecessor Jon Stewart, a former overwhelming Emmy winner, was nominated for his Apple TV+ series The Problem With Jon Stewart. (Jimmy Fallon’s “The Tonight Show” hasn’t been nominated in this category since 2016.)
In the scripted variety series category, Oliver now takes on Saturday Night Live, the show that has won more Emmys than any other series. “SNL” presents stiff competition, but there are signs of weakness for the NBC star. After enjoying a very strong Emmy run during the Trump years, “SNL” has only received nine Emmy nominations in each of the past two years. That was the lowest tally since 2015. “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” which HBO recently canceled, was also nominated.
There were a number of artists who were nominated multiple times. The Last of Us star Pedro Pascal was nominated for Best Actor in a Drama, Best Guest Actor in a Comedy (for hosting Saturday Night Live) and Best Narrator (for CNN) “Patagonia: life on the edge of the world). These are Pascal’s first Emmy nominations.
Other notable multiple award winners include Melanie Lynskey, who was nominated for Best Actress in a Drama Series (“Yellowjackets”) and Best Guest Actress in a Drama (“The Last of Us”). Murray Bartlett, last year’s Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series for The White Lotus, was also nominated twice: Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series for The Last Of Us (Nick Offerman, who played Bartlett’s romantic partner). also nominated) and Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series for Welcome to Chippendales.