Earlier this morning, Emmy Nominations were announced, and as typical there are some insights and trends that can be gleaned from the International Television Academy’s nominations for this year’s award show, being held on August 25th a Monday for the first time ever.
The Academy finally watched a big four comedy that wasn’t Modern Family: It’s been a rough few years for the big four networks in terms of nominations at the Emmys. However, the one consistent beacon of hope for the big four has been ABC’s Modern Family. It’s taken four straight best comedy awards and held half of the best supporting actor field last year. More often than not, it, The Big Bang Theory, and the token Amy Poehler best actress nomination are all the networks have seen on the comedy side of the ledger.This year, however, it seems like the networks have picked up a smidge of ground on the comedy side. In addition to the above, shows as diverse as Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Mike and Molly, and even Mom managed to score nominations from the academy.
Conversely, the only network dramas that even remotely register are The Good Wife and Scandal: Another year, and on the drama side, it feels like another set of the same nominations (except for Homeland disappearing from the ledger). The nominations are the same stew of Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, and House of Cards. The networks continue to generally be locked out outside of the acting categories, and even then the nominees only come from Scandal and The Good Wife (the latter of which typically needs nominations like this to stay on the air).
Netflix held it’s gains from last year: Last year, the big story was Netflix’s breakthrough, as the web streaming service scored nominations for season four of Arrested Development and House of Cards. This year, we once again see the voters loving House of Cards, with the show picking up multiple nominations. While there was no new Arrested Development this year, the voters found room in their hearts for Orange is the New Black and even Derek scored a nomination for best actor in a comedy (Ricky Gervais).
The Academy needs to figure out what to do with anthology and limited series: The academy showed remarkable inconsistency with how it placed it’s anthology dramas in this years awards nominations. The most egregious example? American Horror Story, which while different stories is in it’s third season was placed in the outstanding miniseries category, while True Detective, which is slated to operate the exact same way is placed in the best drama category. With limited series (shows designed to be one season and done or one season and a total revamp) on the rise, it’s essential that shows like American Horror Story, True Detective, and Fargo are all being considered in the same category.
It’s the usual suspects for variety and reality: If you follow the Emmy nomination process, all of the variety program nominations should come as no surprise (I believe Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Real Time w/Bill Maher, and Saturday Night Live were all nominated last year). This is a similar case in the reality category where smart money usually calls on The Amazing Race to win until the TV academy thinks of something new to automatically check off in this box.
The 66th Annual Prime Time Emmy Awards are Monday August 25th (in order to avoid a conflict with NBC’s football contract AND the considerably less prestigious MTV Movie Awards) at 8 Eastern on NBC. Keep checking Manhattan Digest for more news and coverage of this event.