So much TV, so few Emmy chances

In this age of “peak TV” when there has never been as much television or places to watch it, you would think the industry’s foremost awards, the Primetime Emmys, would reflect this diversity of options in the choice of nominees.

With the nominees for this year’s 75th edition due to be announced on July 12, what you’ll probably see is that the nominations will be dominated by a small selection of shows rather than a host of different productions.

In particular, watch out for the acting categories, which tend to be swamped by actors from the same shows rather than performances that reflect the broad range of television offerings.

In 2021, as Scott Feinberg pointed out in The Hollywood Reporter, though hundreds of shows were eligible for nominations, the Emmy adjudicators chose just 12 series to receive more than a single nomination in the acting categories.

These included the confoundingly overnominated Saturday Night Live (11 nominations), The Handmaid’s Tale (10), The Crown (9) and Ted Lasso (7). Back in the days of network television such a small field of nominated shows was understandable, but ever since the rise of cable and the explosion of streaming, the amount of eligible content has mushroomed and so it is perplexing that the nominations have yet to properly mirror this change.

You can be certain that this year’s nominations will be concentrated in the hands of a small group of usual suspects.

Even if you accept that Emmy voters are just ordinary people who can only devote a limited amount of time to watching shows, that does not quite explain why they are focusing on just a handful of contenders.

Feinberg argues that it may be the fault of the TV Academy. In 2017, it decided to do away with the previous nomination ballot format, which only allowed a certain number of slots for members to nominate in each category, and told them instead to feel free to nominate “as many achievements in a category as you have seen and feel are worthy of nominations”.

That may seem a welcome push to increase nominations but what it really does is make it easier for busy/lazy/halfhearted members to simply make their choices from a handful of well-publicised shows they feel they need to watch and ignore the rest, thereby leaving many productions out of the running before they’ve had half a chance.

So unless the TV Academy members have suddenly decided to make the most of a process that is supposed to allow them to expand their viewing and consequently their nomination universe, you can be certain that this year’s nominations will be concentrated in the hands of a small group of usual suspects. This is not to say that these shows are not great or not high-quality products but rather that they are the beneficiaries of superior buying power on the part of their networks and production houses. They can splash out on expensive advertising and clickbait campaigns to keep them in the consciousness of voters longer than shows with fewer publicity resources.

So expect a slew of acting nominations for Succession, in particular for its actors, who are certain to dominate most of the dramatic categories. HBO’s hopes for Emmy success will be further boosted by its teen-drama-for-adults Euphoria, which should likewise feature pretty high on the acting nominations list. Then there’s Netflix’s smash 80s-retro-horror hit Stranger Things which has screened its fourth season just in time for this year’s awards and is likely to be rewarded heavily in the drama acting categories. Lastly, you could bet pretty confidently on a host of nominations for the mostly female-starring survivalist drama hit Yellowjackets, which will give 90s veterans like Melanie Liskey, Juliette Lewis and Christina Ricci a shot at grabbing their first TV statues.

In the limited/anthology/TV category — the one section that changes every year — few shows will be as assured of glory as Mike White’s breakout black comedy hit The White Lotus. And in spite of having become ever less relevant, talked about or watched, Saturday Night Live is still guaranteed a far greater number of nominations in the comedy categories than it deserves.

It is highly likely that this year’s nominations will continue the antiquated trend of choosing only a small number of shows for multiple-nomination honours and in a year in which there has been so much new, interesting, genre-bending and entertaining television, so much of it will escape notice come July 12.

Perhaps the truth is — as any critic or commentator working in the “peak TV” landscape can tell you — there is so much on offer that it is increasingly hard to keep up whether you’re writing about television, watching it, or God forbid, have been asked to adjudicate it as an Emmy voter.