We’ve already had one Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony this year and now there’s another one. That’s because the 2023 awards were delayed by the strike in Hollywood and so their usual September announcement was delayed until January 2024. Now it’s almost business as usual and, with the announcement on Wednesday of the 2024 nominations, there are some surprises, snubs and overdue recognitions on the list.
Netflix leads the overall nominations podium with 107 across all the categories, a once surprising fact that’s now become commonplace. The biggest surprise was that FX — the home of The Bear, Shogun, Reservation Dogs and Fargo — earned 93 nominations across all categories to place the studio in second place above veteran Emmy sweeper HBO, which managed only 91 nominations for this year. That FX achievement was helped in no small part by the record 23 nominations earned for the second season of The Bear, after its 10 wins for 2023, which already stand as an Emmy record for the first season of a comedy series.
Shogun, the epic sleeper-hit adaptation of the novel by James Clavell, which tells the story of a marooned British sailor who becomes embroiled in a power struggle in feudal-era Japan, earned 21 nominations. It was joined by other newcomers like Prime Video’s video-game adaptation Fallout, the Donald Glover creation Mr & Mrs Smith, also produced by Amazon, and Netflix’s twisty sci-fi adaptation 3 Body Problem.
Apple TV+ earned yet another drama nomination for its uneven but popular The Morning Show, starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, and some long overdue recognition for Slow Horses, the Mick Herron adaptation that stars Gary Oldman. Netflix’s The Crown, an ever reliable Emmy winner, earned its place in the line-up for its final season, and Dominic West finally got a nod for his portrayal of Prince Charles.
Cult-hit comedy series Reservation Dogs, about the lives of young people on a present-day Native American reservation, finally earned Emmy recognition for its third and final season. It joins a category that is still dominated by long-running and often previous winners, including the final season of Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, the rising stars of Abbott Elementary, the dysfunctional vampire family of What We Do in the Shadows, the acerbically smart buddy-female-comedian dramedy Hacks and the charming farce of Only Murders in the Building. The other debut in this category was Apple TV+’s comedy of high-society back-stabbing in the 1960s, Palm Royale, starring Kristen Wiig.
One of bigger snubs came in this category, with the failure to recognise Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone’s smart and darkly funny The Curse, which even after Stone’s best actress win at this year’s Oscars didn’t manage to earn her an acting nomination.
The limited or anthology series category saw some expected entries from Netflix’s Ripley and the internet-controversial Baby Reindeer, the return of Noah Hawley’s groundbreaking Fargo and the feminist-centred rebirth of True Detective: Night Country. Prime Video’s Expats, starring Nicole Kidman, failed to make the cut in spite of pundit productions and a big push from its studio. HBO’s dictator comedy The Regime, with Kate Winslet, was also left out.
While Oscar winners Kidman, Winslet and Stone failed to earn nominations for their TV work this year, Oldman finally got a nomination for his portrayal of shaggy spy chief Jackson Lamb in Slow Horses. Fellow Brit Idris Elba earned his sixth nomination for his role in the Apple TV+ action thriller miniseries Hijack and that may be enough to finally earn him a win, after five previous unsuccessful nominations for his work in British detective drama Luther.
In the lead actress in a comedy series category, pop star Selena Gomez finally joined her Only Murders in the Building co-stars Steve Martin and Martin Short on the nominations list, making this the first year in which all three stars of the popular mystery comedy are in the running for an Emmy. They’re joined by three-time Oscar and Emmy winner Meryl Streep, who earned her sixth Emmy nomination for her work as a supporting actor on the show’s third season.
The nominations were decided by the votes of about 22,000 members of the TV Academy who this year had a pool of 229 series submitted for consideration for the major categories. Unsurprisingly, in light of the 2023 strikes and the end of many major shows, that figure is down 33% from last year. The reduction in the number of submissions resulted in the scaling down of nominations in some categories, which may have unfairly affected hopeful newcomers’ chances of Emmy glory this year. Have no fear though. There will probably be an increase in submissions next year, marking the complete return to business as usual for the television world’s premier awards show.
Until then there’s plenty to play for, for those who’ve been given the nod by the TV Academy, which will make its winning choices known on September 15.
• For the full list of this year’s nominations visit emmys.com
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