There’s much to be pleased about with these nominations. There’s also “House of Cards, ” and Barb
On Thursday Emmy voters provided viewers like me with. Not excited — we’ re not quite there yet. But we’ ll definitely be interested in the outcome of several major races that have been set for the 69th annual Emmy Awards telecast, many of which pit deserving newcomers against old standbys. That’s the benefit and the frustration of Emmy in the age of Peak TV. A number of newcomers are breaking uncharted creative ground, striking chords with passionate audiences and generating buzz that’s too loud to be ignored. And yet, if the enemy of the great is the good, then in this Platinum Television Age of ours, the enemy of the greatest is sheer volume of great, good and everything else. Remember when we told you that? Well, in order for a program to be eligible for this round of nominations, it had to debut and run at least half a season’s worth of episodes. While I don’ t have an exact count of the number of eligible programs that aired within this timeframe, enough of them aired that, , the drama series category received 180 submissions, with best actor in a drama netting 140 and best actress in a drama raking in 113. All of which is to say that there’s simply too much television for the common viewer to sift through without serious effort. So. Very. Much. Now consider the folks who select the Emmy contenders. Emmy voters are creatures of habit. They love marquee players and repeat winners. And with so many series and performers to evaluate, the typical viewer may be dismayed, if not surprised, that they opted to shove familiar titles and names into major categories as opposed to taking risks on newcomers or more deserving veterans that have been passed over time and again. This is why alongside the many reasons to cheer this round of nominees, the common frustrations remain. Let’s break the nominations down on a few fronts, shall we? In terms of overall nominations, HBO comes in first place with 111 nominations, with Netflix snagging second place at 91. The streaming service is generating new series content at a feverish rate with debuts rolling out just about every week. “Stranger Things” received 18 nominations including a nod for Best Drama, alongside “The Crown, ” which scored 13 noms. Thursday’s Cinderella story, as it were, has to be Hulu and its 13 nominations for “The Handmaid’s Tale, ” including for Best Drama and lead actress Elisabeth Moss. What’s more, Hulu got 18 nominations overall — two more than Amazon, long seen as the second-place competitor to Netflix. Amazingly NBC jumped to third place ahead of FX with 64 due to multiple nominations for freshman hit “This Is Us” and a record-breaking 22 nominations for “Saturday Night Live, ” tying it with HBO’s “Westworld” as the most-nominated series out of this year’s batch. No reason to weep for FX, though; it still secured 55 nods, including a Best Comedy nomination for “Atlanta, ” a highly deserved nom for “Better Things” star Pamela Adlon, and several nods for “Feud: Bette and Joan” which is facing off in several categories with HBO’s “Big Little Lies.” The 22 nominations for “Saturday Night Live” isn’ t particularly shocking in light of the long-running sketch series’ record-breaking 42nd season, for which it enjoyed a spike in the ratings and became necessary viewing. Although “SNL” synthesized into the go-to antidote for any churning anxiety produced by political headlines, it was not the only series rewarded by Emmy for punching upward at Donald Trump and his feckless administration. In the Outstanding Variety Talk Series category, TBS’s “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” and CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” were both nominated, joining a crowd of repeaters including ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The Late Show with James Corden.” HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” also scored a nod despite his embarrassing recent flirtation with the “N” word, which is not at all surprising given voter habit and how quickly and predictably the scandal burned out.
