Special Emmy Awards Edition
Who Shall Win and Who Shall Lose
I’ve always enjoyed reading Emmy predictions/snubs, so I thought, what else is this newsletter for if I can’t do one of my own? The 74th awards are tomorrow, Monday 9/12 on NBC and Peacock.
Seasons/performances I haven’t seen in are in italics.
Best Comedy
Nominees: Abbott Elementary (season 1, ABC), Barry (season 3, HBO), Curb Your Enthusiasm (season 11, HBO), Hacks (season 2, HBO Max), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (season 4 , Amazon), Only Murders in the Building (season 1, Hulu), Ted Lasso (season 2, Apple TV+), What We Do in the Shadows (season 3, FX)
Should win: What We Do in the Shadows
Will win: Abbott Elementary
Snubbed: The Great (season 2, Hulu), The Other Two (season 2, HBO Max), I Love That For You (season 1, Showtime), Saved By The Bell (season 2, Peacock)
Best Drama
Nominees: Better Call Saul (season 6, AMC), Euphoria (season 2, HBO), Ozark (season 4, Netflix), Severance (season 1, Apple), Squid Game (season 1, Netflix), Stranger Things (season 4, Netflix), Succession (season 3, HBO), Yellowjackets (season 1, Showtime)
Should win: Severance
Will win: Succession. Or Better Call Saul and Ozark could win for their final seasons since both have been nominated in the past but not won.
Snubbed: Pachinko (season 1, Apple)
Best Limited Series
Nominees: Dopesick (Hulu), The Dropout (Hulu), Inventing Anna (Netflix), Pam & Tommy (Hulu), The White Lotus (HBO)
Should win: Dopesick or The White Lotus
Will win: The White Lotus
Snubbed: Maid (Netflix), Under the Banner of Heaven (FX), Midnight Mass (Netflix)
Onto the acting awards! IMO, these shouldn’t be gendered and there should be ensemble acting awards, which would probably mirror the best casting award, but whatever.
Best Actress, Comedy
Nominees: Rachel Brosnahan - The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel / Quinta Brunson -Abbott Elementary / Kaley Cuoco - The Flight Attendant (HBO Max) / Elle Fanning - The Great / Issa Rae - Insecure (HBO) / Jean Smart - Hacks
Should win: Kaley Cuoco, or Issa Rae since this was Insecure’s last season
Will win: Jean Smart
Snubbed: Renée Elise Goldsberry – Girls5Eva (Peacock) / Alia Shawkat - Search Party (HBO Max), Rose Byrne - Physical (Apple) / Vanessa Bayer – I Love That For You
Best Actor, Comedy
Nominees: Donald Glover – Atlanta (FX) / Bill Hader – Barry / Nicholas Hoult – The Great / Steve Martin, Martin Short – Only Murders in the Building / Jason Sudeikis – Ted Lasso
Should win: Nicholas Hoult. I’m a Skins (E4, available on Hulu) fan for life
Will win: Probably Hader or Sudeikis again? OMitB may split votes.
Snubbed: Harvey Guillen & Kayvan Novak - What We Do In The Shadows
Best Actress, Drama
Nominees: Jodie Comer, Sandra Oh - Killing Eve (BBCAmerica) / Laura Linney – Ozark / Melanie Lynskey – Yellowjackets / Reese Witherspoon – The Morning Show (Apple) / Zendaya – Euphoria
Should win: Melanie Lynskey
Will win: Jodie Comer and Zendaya are past winners… But Sandra Oh and Laura Linney could both get the last season recognition bump.
Snubbed: Kim Min-ha - Pachinko
Best Actor, Drama
Nominees: Jason Bateman - Ozark / Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong - Succession / Lee Jung-jae - Squid Game / Bob Odenkirk - Better Call Saul / Adam Scott - Severance
Should win: I don’t have strong feelings about this one.
Will win: Bob Odenkirk
Snubbed: Lee Pace - Foundation
Best Actress, Limited Series or TV Movie
Nominees: Toni Collette - The Staircase (HBO) / Julia Garner - Inventing Anna / Lily James - Pam & Tommy / Sarah Paulson - Impeachment (FX) / Margaret Qualley - Maid / Amanda Seyfried - The Dropout
Should win: Amanda Seyfried
Will win: Amanda Seyfried
Snubbed: Elle Fanning - The Girl From Plainville (Hulu) / Mackenzie Davis - Station Eleven (HBO Max) / Emmy Rossum - Angelyne (Peacock)
Best Actor, Limited Series or TV Movie
Nominees: Colin Firth - The Staircase / Andrew Garfield - Under the Banner of Heaven / Oscar Isaac - Scenes from a Marriage (HBO) / Michael Keaton - Dopesick / Himesh Patel - Station Eleven / Sebastian Stan - Pam & Tommy
Should win: Himesh Patel
Will win: Andrew Garfield
Snubbed: Hamish Linklater - Midnight Mass
Supporting Actress, Comedy
Nominees: Alex Borstein – The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel / Hannah Einbinder - Hacks / Janelle James, Sheryl Lee Ralph - Abbott Elementary / Kate McKinnon - Saturday Night Live / Sarah Niles, Juno Temple, Hannah Waddingham - Ted Lasso
Should win: Janelle James
Will win: Again, we have potential for vote splitting between the Abbott and Ted Lasso nominees… Maybe Kate McKinnon?
Snubbed: Edi Patterson - The Righteous Gemstones (season 3, HBO) / Josie Totah - Saved By The Bell / Meredith Hagner - Search Party / Sarah Goldberg - Barry
Supporting Actor, Comedy
Nominees: Brett Goldstein, Nick Mohammed, Toheeb Jimoh - Ted Lasso / Tyler James Williams - Abbott Elementary / Tony Shalhoub - The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel / Bowen Yang - Saturday Night Live / Anthony Carrigan, Henry Winkler - Barry
Should win: Toheeb Jimoh
Will win: Similar situation to Supporting Actress, maybe Bowen Yang?
Snubbed: John Early - Search Party / Brian Tyree Henry - Atlanta
Supporting Actress, Drama
Nominees: Patricia Arquette - Severance / Julia Garner - Ozark / Jung Ho-yeon - Squid Game / Christina Ricci - Yellowjackets / Rhea Seehorn - Better Call Saul / J. Smith Cameron, Sarah Snook - Succession / Sydney Sweeney - Euphoria
Should win: Patricia Arquette, Christina Ricci, or Sarah Snook
Will win: Feels like anyone could take it!
Snubbed: Britt Lower - Severance
Supporting Actor, Drama
Nominees: Nicholas Braun, Matthew Macfayden, Kieran Culkin - Succession / Billy Crudup - The Morning Show / Oh Yeong-su, Park Hae-soo - Squid Game / John Tuturro, Christopher Walken - Severance
Should win: Macfayden or Tuturro
Will win: Again, feels like anyone could win.
Snubbed: Zach Cherry, Tramell Tillman - Severance
Supporting Actress, Limited Series or a Movie
Nominees: Connie Britton, Jennifer Coolidge, Alexandra Daddario, Natasha Rothwell, Sydney Sweeney - The White Lotus / Kaitlyn Dever, Mare Winningham - Dopesick
Should win: Jennifer Coolidge or Kaitlyn Dever
Will win: Jennifer Coolidge
Snubbed: It’s wild that only two shows are represented here.
Supporting Actor, Limited Series or Movie
Nominees: Murray Bartlett, Jake Lacy, Steve Zahn - The White Lotus / Seth Rogen - Pam & Tommy / Will Poulter, Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Stuhlbarg - Dopesick
Should win: Murray Bartlett or Peter Sarsgaard
Will win: Murray Bartlett
Snubbed: Billy Howle - Under the Banner of Heaven
I’m not including the directing awards or most of the writing awards on this list because they’re for specific episodes, and I didn’t have time to go back and see which was which. For directing, the award favors pilots because the director establishes a show’s visual tone, or technically challenging episodes where you can SEE the directing. Also, a whole staff does the writing, especially in comedy, but only one or two writers get the award which sucks!
For limited series, all the nominees happen to be the show creators or showrunners.
Writing for a Limited Series, Movie or Drama Special
Nominees: Elizabeth Meriwether - The Dropout / Sarah Burgess - Impeachment: American Crime Story / Molly Smith Metzler - Maid / Patrick Somerville - Station Eleven / Danny Strong - Dopesick / Mike White - The White Lotus
Should win: Mike White, the only one of these that isn’t an adaptation! Do we need separate categories like the Oscars? Maybe!!
Will win: Mike White
Snubbed: It’s interesting that Maid and Station Eleven show up here, and in the directing category, but not in the main category.
Last but not least, we’ve got variety and reality series. Other reality categories were already presented at the Creative Arts Emmys last week. My biggest general snub is How To With John Wilson (HBO), which I think suffers from not being easily categorizable. It at least picked up a nomination for Writing For A Nonfiction Program for the “How To Appreciate Wine” episode.
Variety Talk Series
Nominees: The Daily Show With Trevor Noah (Comedy Central), Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC), Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO), Late Night With Seth Meyers (NBC), The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (CBS)
Should win: Late Night With Seth Meyers
Will win: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver or The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
Snubbed: Ziwe (Showtime), Desus & Mero (Showtime)
Variety Sketch Series
Nominees: A Black Lady Sketch Show (season 3, HBO), Saturday Night Live (season 47, NBC)
Should win: Does it really matter when there are only two nominees? A bleak indicator for sketch comedy.
Will win: SNL
Snubbed: I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson (Netflix) was nominated in the Short Form Comedy, Drama or Variety Series category, I guess because its episodes are under 20 minutes, but it really should be in this category. Instead it had to endure the indignity of losing to Carpool Karaoke?! Thankfully Tim won for best actor in a short form series.
Reality Competition Program
Nominees: The Amazing Race (season 33, CBS), Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls (season 1, Amazon), Nailed It (season 6, Netflix), RuPaul’s Drag Race (season 14, VH1), Top Chef (season 19, Bravo ), The Voice (season 21, NBC)
Should win/Will win: I don’t know!
Snubbed: FBoy Island