The Crown and The Mandalorian led nominations on Tuesday for the Emmy Awards in a field packed with newcomers and feel-good TV shows that reflected the surge in streaming during the coronavirus pandemic.
HBO and its new HBO Max streaming platform led all networks with 130 nominations, followed by Netflix Inc with 129. The Apple TV+ streaming service scored 35 nods – its best-ever showing – mostly for the heartwarming comedy Ted Lasso.
Best drama series contenders include Netflix's British royal series The Crown for a season that focused on the early years of the disastrous marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
The Crown nabbed a leading 24 nods, including nine for actors such as Josh O'Connor and newcomer Emma Corrin as the royal newlyweds and Olivia Colman as a middle-aged Queen Elizabeth.
"We are all pinching ourselves that after four series, The Crown is still being embraced and enjoyed in this way," creator Peter Morgan said in a statement.
The Emmy Awards will be handed out at a ceremony in Los Angeles on September 19th, hosted by actor Cedric the Entertainer. While they are awarded by the Los Angeles-based Television Academy, they are considered the highest TV honours in the world.
Star Wars spinoff drama The Mandalorian, a Disney+ series that features the beloved Baby Yoda character, tied The Crown with 24 nominations, including best drama series and others for writing and special effects.
Bridgerton, Netflix’s modern twist on 19th-century British romance, won a best drama series nod as well as an acting nomination for breakout Black British star Regé-Jean Page.
Bridgerton creator Chris Van Dusen said the show offered a respite during the grim days of Covid-19 lockdowns and sickness.
“At the end of the day, Bridgerton is a beautiful, escapist world that you get to enter in. It’s a show about romance and love and joy,” Van Dusen said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
TV viewing exploded during the pandemic, sending viewers to the vast libraries of programming on streaming platforms. The health crisis also disrupted production, leaving previous winners like Succession and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel out of the Emmy running this year.
The production lull opened the way for new shows and stars.
In the comedy field, 75 per cent of the nominees were new to the field, led by Ted Lasso, about an underdog English soccer team coached by an American, which scored 20 nods, including for its star and co-writer Jason Sudeikis, and six other actors.
Its competitors for best comedy series include the HBO Max streaming shows The Flight Attendant, with Kaley Cuoco, and Hacks, about a veteran female comic played by Jean Smart.
Other notable nods went to a documentary about Britney Spears and to Oprah Winfrey's explosive interview in March with Prince Harry and his wife Meghan in their first major TV sit-down since quitting the royal family in early 2020.
The much-anticipated Friends reunion show in May also got a nomination.
Pose star Mj Rodriguez became the first transgender performer to pick up a lead Emmy acting nomination, for her role in the drama series about the LGBTQ underground ballroom scene. Laverne Cox was the first transgender actress to be nominated for an acting Emmy for her guest role in Orange Is the New Black.
LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD called the Rodriguez nomination “a breakthrough for transgender women in Hollywood.”
Crime story Mare of Easttown, starring Kate Winslet, and British drama I May Destroy You, starring and created by Michaela Coel, will face off in a strong field for best limited series that includes chess drama The Queen's Gambit and harrowing slavery tale The Underground Railroad.
Walt Disney Co led all media companies with 146 nominations combined across all of its platforms, including the Disney+ and Hulu streaming services and traditional networks including ABC.
Innovative Disney+ superhero dramedy WandaVision scored 23 nominations, including for stars Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen. Creator Jac Schaeffer called the show a love letter to television that explores a woman's grief.
“I think people had spent the previous year retreating into their content because we were all trapped at home and we were all afraid and angry and grieving, and the sort of balm to those wounds was oftentimes TV,” she said by phone on Tuesday.
The main nominees
Outstanding drama series
The Boys
Bridgerton
The Crown
The Handmaid's Tale
Lovecraft Country
The Mandalorian
Pose
This Is Us
Outstanding comedy series
Black-ish
Cobra Kai
Emily in Paris
The Flight Attendant
Hacks
The Kominsky Method
PEN15
Ted Lasso
Outstanding limited series or anthology
I May Destroy You
Mare Of Easttown
The Queen's Gambit
The Underground Railroad
WandaVision
Outstanding television movie
Dolly Parton's Christmas On The Square
Oslo
Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia
Sylvie's Love
Uncle Frank
Outstanding lead actress in a drama series
Uzo Aduba (In Treatment)
Olivia Colman (The Crown)
Emma Corrin (The Crown)
Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale)
Mj Rodriguez (Pose)
Jurnee Smollett (Lovecraft Country)
Outstanding lead actor in a drama series
Sterling K Brown (This Is Us)
Jonathan Majors (Lovecraft Country)
Josh O'Connor (The Crown)
Rege-Jean Page (Bridgerton)
Billy Porter (Pose)
Matthew Rhys (Perry Mason)
Outstanding lead actress in a comedy series
Aidy Bryant (Shrill)
Kaley Cuoco (The Flight Attendant)
Allison Janney (Mom)
Tracee Ellis Ross (Black-ish)
Jean Smart (Hacks)
Outstanding lead actor in a comedy series
Anthony Anderson (Black-ish)
Michael Douglas (The Kominsky Method)
William H Macy (Shameless)
Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso)
Kenan Thompson (Kenan)
Outstanding lead actress in a limited or anthology series or movie
Michaela Coel (I May Destroy You)
Cynthia Erivo (Genius: Aretha)
Elizabeth Olsen (WandaVision)
Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen's Gambit)
Kate Winslet (Mare Of Easttown)
Outstanding lead actor in a limited or anthology series or movie
Paul Bettany (WandaVision)
Hugh Grant (The Undoing)
Ewan McGregor (Halston)
Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton)
Leslie Odom Jr (Hamilton)
Outstanding supporting actress in a drama series
Gillian Anderson (The Crown)
Helena Bonham Carter (The Crown)
Madeline Brewer (The Handmaid's Tale)
Ann Dowd (The Handmaid's Tale)
Aunjanue Ellis (Lovecraft Country)
Emerald Fennell (The Crown)
Yvonne Strahovski (The Handmaid's Tale)
Samira Wiley (The Handmaid's Tale)
Outstanding supporting actor in a drama series
Giancarlo Esposito (The Mandalorian)
O-T Fagbenle (The Handmaid's Tale)
John Lithgow (Perry Mason)
Tobias Menzies (The Crown)
Max Minghella (The Handmaid's Tale)
Chris Sullivan (This Is Us)
Bradley Whitford (The Handmaid's Tale)
Michael K Williams (Lovecraft Country)
Outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series
Aidy Bryant (Saturday Night Live)
Hannah Einbinder (Hacks)
Kate McKinnon (Saturday Night Live)
Rosie Perez (The Flight Attendant)
Cecily Strong (Saturday Night Live)
Juno Temple (Ted Lasso)
Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso)
Outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series
Carl Clemons-Hopkins (Hacks)
Brett Goldstein (Ted Lasso)
Brendan Hunt (Ted Lasso)
Nick Mohammed (Ted Lasso)
Paul Reiser (The Kominsky Method)
Jeremy Swift (Ted Lasso)
Kenan Thompson (Saturday Night Live)
Bowen Yang (Saturday Night Live)
Outstanding supporting actress in a limited anthology series or
movie
Renee Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton)
Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision)
Moses Ingram (The Queen's Gambit)
Julianne Nicholson (Mare Of Easttown)
Jean Smart (Mare Of Easttown)
Phillipa Soo (Hamilton)
Outstanding supporting actor in a limited anthology series or movie
Thomas Brodie-Sangster (The Queen's Gambit)
Daveed Diggs (Hamilton)
Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You)
Jonathan Groff (Hamilton)
Evan Peters (Mare Of Easttown)
Anthony Ramos (Hamilton)
Outstanding guest actress in a drama series
Alexis Bledel (The Handmaid's Tale)
Claire Foy (The Crown)
Mckenna Grace (The Handmaid's Tale)
Sophie Okonedo (Ratched)
Phylicia Rashad (This Is Us)
Outstanding guest actor in a drama series
Don Cheadle (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier)
Charles Dance (The Crown)
Timothy Olyphant (The Mandalorian)
Courtney B Vance (Lovecraft Country)
Carl Weathers (The Mandalorian)
Outstanding guest actress in a comedy series
Jane Adams (Hacks)
Yvette Nicole Brown (A Black Lady Sketch Show)
Bernadette Peters (Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist)
Issa Rae (A Black Lady Sketch Show)
Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live)
Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live)
Outstanding guest actor in a comedy series
Alec Baldwin (Saturday Night Live)
Dave Chappelle (Saturday Night Live)
Morgan Freeman (The Kominsky Method)
Daniel Kaluuya (Saturday Night Live)
Daniel Levy (Saturday Night Live)
Outstanding variety talk series
Conan
The Daily Show With Trevor Noah
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
Outstanding variety sketch series
A Black Lady Sketch Show
Saturday Night Live
Outstanding variety special (live)
Bo Burnham: Inside
David Byrne's American Utopia
8:46 — Dave Chappelle
Friends: The Reunion
Hamilton
A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote
Outstanding competition programme
The Amazing Race
Nailed It!
RuPaul's Drag Race
Top Chef
The Voice
Outstanding host for a reality or competition programme
Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness
(Queer Eye)
Nicole Byer (Nailed It!)
Barbara Corcoran, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, Kevin O'Leary (Shark Tank)
Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi, Gail Simmons (Top Chef)
RuPaul (RuPaul's Drag Race) – Reuters
