When the 2023 Primetime Emmy nominations were announced on Wednesday, the major categories were filled as expected, with a few exceptions. Further down the page, some surprises appeared. It looks like members of the Television Academy have started ticking off all the names they’ve seen on their favorite shows like “Ted Lasso” and “The White Lotus.”
Despise: Taylor Sheridan
He may be the most successful television producer of our time, but Sheridan is not respected at the Emmy Awards. His monster hit “Yellowstone” continues to be a shutout (he was nominated for one Primetime Emmy Award for Best Production Design in 2021), and his other series “1923,” “Tulsa King,” The Mayor of Kingstown” won the award. I was involved in the stunt coordination of “Tulsa King”. It’s particularly irritating that Helen Mirren was not named as the matriarch in the Western 1923.
Surprise: “Obi-Wan Kenobi”
Anticipating greater acceptance of genre programming backed by existing intellectual property, ‘Andor’ and ‘The Last of Us’ lived up to expectations with Best Drama nominations. But seeing his second “Star Wars” show on Disney+ break out in the limited series category (along with “Andor”) came as a mild shock. Ewan McGregor has reprized his role as Obi-Wan from the prequels, and it seems he’s garnering a lot of goodwill. Obi-Wan’s nomination came at the expense of more solid series like “Black Bird” and “Small Light.”
Contempt: Comedy
The long, slow fading of traditional norms of television humor was evident during the announcement of Best Comedy nominees, during which “Abbott Elementary,” “Barry,” “The Bear,” Clips of “Jurors” and “The Marvelous Mrs.” played. “Maisel,” “Only Murders in the Building,” “Ted Russo,” and “Wednesday” contained few jokes or laughter. The fusion of TV comedy and satirical drama is almost complete.
Surprise: “Jury Duty”
Freevee’s mashup of sitcoms and reality mind games garnered a lot of attention, but no one expected it to lead to Comedy Series, Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (James Marsden himself) nominations.
Contempt: “What we do in the shadows”
FX’s hilarious vampire comedy received four technical nominations, but missed out on the Comedy Series nomination, which it won in two of its first three seasons.
Surprise: Kumail Nanjiani
Nanjiani’s performance as Indian immigrant and male stripper entrepreneur Steve Banerjee in Hulu’s “Welcome to Chippendale” was critically acclaimed, but Steve Carell (as FX in Hulu’s “The Patient”) and Nanjiani’s performance were critically acclaimed. Jesse Eisenberg (as FX in Hulu’s “Fleischman Is In Trouble”) was considered a strong contender for Best Actor in a Limited Series.
Despise: Harrison Ford, Steve Martin, Fiona Shaw, Imelda Staunton
For four people with careers as long and successful as these, it shouldn’t be too bad, but they were all expected to be called out: Ford is the comedy supporting actor in Shrinking. (and possibly Best Actor in a Drama for Shrinking 1923″); Martin was nominated for Best Actor in a Comedy for “Only Murders in the Building” (castmate Martin Short was nominated). rice field). Shaw is a drama guest actress in “Andor”. And, perhaps the most notable omission, Stanton won Best Actress in a Drama for “The Crown.”
Surprise: The supporting cast of ‘The White Lotus’
Sabrina Impacciatore, Theo James, Will Sharpe and Simona Tabasco all look like Giancarlo Esposito (“Better Call Saul”) and John Lithgow (“The Old Man”) , which received unexpected nominations for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actor, in categories where more famous and worthy performers were chosen. ), especially Carol Burnett (“Better Call Saul”), were expected to make the list.
Surprise: “Last week tonight with John Oliver”
No one was really surprised that Oliver’s top topical series was nominated in the Scripted Variety Series category. But after the show was removed from the talk category it has dominated for the past seven years, there was at least a little more question than usual. (The move opened up room for a talk series for Oliver’s old boss, “The Jon Stewart Problem” host.)
