The 76th Primetime Emmy Awards will take place on September 15, 2024, only eight months after the strike delayed 75th awards ceremony and, once again, The Bear leads its category in nominations. Where the freshman season of The Bear claimed the title with 10 nominations, the second season set a record-breaking 23 nominations (breaking the record previously held by 30 Rock with 22 since 2009). Release schedule confusion abounds in the current TV landscape and may have even played a part in promoting The Bear season 2 during award consideration because the season 3 promotional season was ripe during Emmy nominations season.
Initially billed as a limited series, not long after the finale aired Shōgun was renewed for two more seasons so instead of competing in Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series category it became the first Japanese-language and second non-English language (after Squid Game in 2022) to be nominated for Outstanding Drama Series, it also led in overall nominations with 25. Due to its renewal, the category of submission makes sense, however, there also seem to be games afoot regarding categorization either innocently or to increase the odds of nominations/wins of the project.
Downton Abbey, Big Little Lies, and The White Lotus, were all submitted for the Outstanding Limited Series or Anthology category but did not turn out to be limited series, with Downton Abbey spawning six seasons. The White Lotus is an anthology but because Jennifer Coolidge as Tanya McQuoid-Hunt and Jon Gries as Greg Hunt reprised their characters from the first series it was ineligible to compete again as an anthology series because the Television Academy added what I call the Ryan Murphy preventing shows from continuing story threads, characters, and actors reprising those same characters from previous seasons from competing in the Limited or Anthology Series categories. Often Limited Series or Anthology Series is viewed as an easier category but this was a heavily competitive year in the category with a relatively open Drama category after Succession bowed last year, so Shōgun’s switch may have been more calculated than anything.
But why do people care about nominations and awards to go through all this trouble and gameplay? Well, as noted above, Shōgun is the first Japanese-language series nominated for Outstanding Drama Series, and it wasn’t until 2022 that any series outside of the English-language managed the feet. Nominations and wins open doors and you can even affect change. When Sandra Oh became the first Asian woman nominated for a lead actress Emmy (for Killing Eve) in 2019, she used her platform to say “It’s an honor just to be Asian,” she later repurposed it on a shirt for a fundraiser for the East West Players, the longest-running Asian American theater company.
Winning isn’t everything, Better Call Saul is the most nominated series without a single win (53) but its lack of wins doesn’t diminish the critical and fan love the show has received. Some shows are overlooked by awards committees during their runs because they are more commercial or they are looked at more fondly later. The lack of a nomination for Tatiana Maslany for the first two seasons of Orphan Black was widely talked about and she went on to get nominated for her performances in the third and fifth seasons and a win for the fourth season. The Leftovers’ sole nomination was for Ann Dowd and The Wire received two nominations (for writing!). The Emmys themselves are broken up into different ceremonies and the main ceremony honors the above-the-line talent, but when we count overall nominations, we count all the nominations these shows receive, and that includes the below-the-line numbers. So shows that do tend to get overlooked above the line can thrive in below-the-line nominations and awards. Buffy the Vampire Slayerfans complained constantly during its run about the series getting snubbed for nominations but during its run, it received 14 nominations (and 2 wins), just 13 (and 2 wins) were below-the-line. Their legacies remain regardless of nominations or wins…
So record-breaking, first-time, etc., what about these stats at the Emmys and why do we still care? Well, they are a way to track changes in the landscape of awards and shifts in how we view media. How we are making positive strides and are no longer being deterred by media that requires subtitles. And that we still have a long way to go if we keep hitting firsts, like Lily Gladstone and Kali Reis being the first Indigenous women to receive acting Emmy Nominations this year.
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