It’s been only six months since the Emmys belatedly aired its last ceremony—blame the Hollywood strikes—and yet Wednesday morning’s nominations showed how much has already changed. With a smaller pool of shows submitted across the board—again, blame the strikes—and several Emmy mainstays either concluding their runs or failing to air a new season before the end of the current eligibility window, it’s a lineup with plenty of new faces. (Welcome to the party, Shogun.) Below, we break down the winners and losers of the 76th Emmy Awards nominations.
Winner: FX (and FX on Hulu, and Hulu in General)
FX has long been associated with quality over quantity—the basic cable answer to HBO—but when the network was brought under the Disney umbrella following the company’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox, it was an open question as to whether the House of Mouse would mess with a good thing. Thankfully, FX has continued to hum along with a stellar batting average, while many of its shows have become a prestige TV selling point for Hulu subscribers. (The “FX on Hulu” branding, however, remains needlessly confusing.) To that end, Wednesday’s Emmy nomination haul was arguably the greatest showing in FX’s history.
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On the drama side, Shogun, which garnered an Emmy-leading 25 nominations, feels like the clear front-runner to win Outstanding Drama Series, while Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai have plenty of momentum for Outstanding Lead Actor and Outstanding Lead Actress, respectively. (Spare a thought for Shogun costar Cosmo Jarvis, whose absolutely wild accent work wasn’t enough to pull a nomination.) Meanwhile, The Bear is not only the lead contender to nab Outstanding Comedy Series, but also managed to score 23 nominations, breaking a record in the comedy category. (Whether a show as anxiety-inducing as The Bear should be classified as a comedy, however, is a worthy debate.) Lastly, FX had a good showing in Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, with the fifth (and much improved) season of Fargo leading the charge.
If we broaden out to Hulu shows, Only Murders in the Building also racked up 21 nominations (including Selena Gomez’s first for Outstanding Lead Actress), and you’d expect the Television Academy to keep showering the series with praise for as long as it airs. HBO might still be the king of prestige TV, but FX (and FX on Hulu, and Hulu in general) is an increasingly serious contender for the crown.
Loser: HBO
This is a tough one. No matter how much David Zaslav tarnishes the Warner Bros. brand, HBO will always be HBO. But while HBO is still represented in the main categories—especially if you factor in Max-branded shows like Hacks—it’s hard not to look at this as anything but a down year for the network. The Gilded Age is HBO’s only Outstanding Drama Series nominee, and this is one of those “just happy to be included” situations; The Regime and The Sympathizer never quite latched on with Emmy voters, despite the latter being one of the best shows of the year. Curb Your Enthusiasm is up for Outstanding Comedy Series, but in a stacked category led by The Bear and Abbott Elementary, Larry David’s swan song is likely to come up empty. And not to sound like a True Detective hater, but I’d be surprised if Night Country can edge out buzzier nominees like Baby Reindeer for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series.
Better days are ahead for HBO, especially when House of the Dragon, The Last of Us, and The White Lotus are back in contention. For now, though, the network that’s “not TV” looks set to get beat out by a lot of good TV.
Winner: New Dramas
With so many drama mainstays having concluded (Succession, Better Call Saul) or having yet to release new seasons (The Last of Us, Stranger Things, The White Lotus), the category was ripe for a bunch of first-time nominees. In all, half of the shows up for Outstanding Drama Series are included for their debut seasons: Shogun, 3 Body Problem, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Fallout. Meanwhile, The Morning Show, Slow Horses, and The Gilded Age finally broke through after a few years on the fringe. (By virtue of being nominated for its sixth and final season, The Crown is the only true veteran in the drama field.)
It’s hard to imagine all of these shows sticking around when the likes of House of the Dragon are eligible again. (Somehow, The Morning Show’s third season has an audience score of 12 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, so don’t count on the fans to throw their weight behind it.) But with an Emmys heavyweight like Succession in the rearview, we’ll soon find out which drama—[cough] Shogun—will become a worthy successor.
Winner: Movie Star Power
Even before its most recent controversies, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was known to nominate a bunch of A-listers for Golden Globes, regardless of whether their projects were on everyone’s radar. And with TV becoming a friendlier playing ground for movie stars, the Emmys have followed suit. This year’s nominees include Oscar winners Jodie Foster (True Detective: Night Country), Meryl Streep (Only Murders in the Building), Brie Larson (Lessons in Chemistry), Gary Oldman (Slow Horses), Reese Witherspoon (The Morning Show), and Robert Downey Jr. (The Sympathizer), who have all, to their credit, elevated their respective series. Keep an eye on Downey Jr., in particular: Playing five (!) different characters across The Sympathizer is the kind of showy work that voters may find hard to resist, especially coming off the heels of his Oscar win earlier this year.
Loser: Emmy Voters Who Didn’t Like The Curse
Yes, it was probably a long shot to see The Curse get some Emmys love, even with two-time Oscar winner Emma Stone as the show’s colead. But cocreators Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie deserve plenty of praise for delivering what is, for my money, the most uniquely discombobulating television experience since Twin Peaks: The Return. Of course, The Return barely managed to get on the Television Academy’s radar, so The Curse is in good company. Sometimes, the best TV doesn’t latch on with the mainstream—and was never meant to.
Winner (About Damn Time): Reservation Dogs
With Outstanding Comedy Series boasting so many heavy hitters, I feared that FX’s wonderful coming-of-age dramedy Reservation Dogs would miss the cut for its third and final season. (Before this year, the show had yet to receive a single Primetime Emmy nomination.) Thankfully, it was better late than never for Reservation Dogs, which nabbed an Outstanding Comedy Series nomination, while D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (Bear Smallhill) is up for Outstanding Lead Actor. If I were to quibble with the Television Academy’s choices, I’d love to have seen Devery Jacobs get singled out, having pulled triple duty as an actor, writer, and director on the series. But on the whole, only good things can come from Rez Dogs finally getting its moment in the Emmys spotlight.
Loser: Superheroes
Superheroes aren’t typically something the Television Academy pays attention to, but between Gen V, the first spinoff to The Boys, and Loki, arguably the best Disney+ Marvel series, you’d suspect one might make the cut among a lighter pool of nominees. Alas, neither series is up for any awards. Don’t feel too bad for our small-screen heroes, though: The Boys is one of Prime Video’s greatest success stories, and Gen V has already been renewed for a second season; Loki is a rare win for Marvel’s post-Endgame output. These shows were already burdened with glorious purpose—with or without Emmy nominations to their name.
