2023 Emmy Predictions: Best Narrator

Matthew Stewart
·5 min read
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Last year’s Best Narrator Emmy contest was a real clash of the titans as three-time champion David Attenborough (“The Mating Game”) attempted to fend off famously charismatic first-timer Barack Obama (“Our Great National Parks”). Now that the former U.S. president has one victory under his belt, he is immediately seeking a second for another Netflix series, “Working: What We Do All Day.” This time, he faces an entirely different slate of challengers who could very well make this outing even more difficult.

Those competing against Obama for the 2023 narration prize are returning nominees Angela Bassett (“Good Night Oppy”) and Morgan Freeman (“Our Universe”) and category newcomers Mahershala Ali (“Chimp Empire”) and Pedro Pascal (“Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World”). Collectively, the professional actors have previously vied for 14 Emmys across 10 categories.

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In order to determine if anyone has what it takes to defeat the ex-commander in chief, let’s take a closer look at each nominee. Be sure to make your predictions in this and 29 other Creative Arts Emmy categories by September 9.

Mahershala Ali (“Chimp Empire” – Netflix)
The two-time Oscar winner and three-time acting Emmy nominee shared in a Best Children’s Program win as an executive producer of 2020’s “We Are the Dream.” He narrates all four parts of this nature series about the historically large Ngogo group of chimpanzees that reside in western Uganda. In “Reckoning,” Ali’s submitted episode and the series finale, an alpha primate’s lingering injuries make his overall weakness clear to his underlings and enemies, who orchestrate the conclusion of his six-year reign.

Angela Bassett (“Good Night Oppy” – Prime Video)
Since 2002, this lineup’s only female nominee has contended for five physical acting Emmys and picked up bids in this category for “The Flood” (2019) and “The Imagineering Story” (2020). This Critics Choice Award-winning vocal performance involves her telling the tale of a Mars rover that unexpectedly spent 15 years exploring our neighbor planet. If Bassett succeeds this time, she will follow Meryl Streep (“Five Came Back,” 2017) as the second woman to prevail here against an all-male group of competitors.

Morgan Freeman (“Our Universe” – Netflix)
Freeman, perhaps the most sought-after narrator of our time, lends his iconic voice to all six parts of this nature program, which is the first in a series of six “Our Planet” spin-offs that are set to continue through 2025. In his submitted episode, “Chasing Starlight,” he opens the series by drawing viewers’ attention to the sun and its impact on Earth’s ecosystems, focusing specifically on a Sergenti cheetah called Wa Chini. His only previous nomination in this category came in 2018 for his work in “March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step.”

Barack Obama (“Working: What We Do All Day” – Netflix)
As on “Our Great National Parks,” Obama makes brief physical appearances in each “Working” episode that drive home the sincerity of his message. In this case, he strives to focus attention on the struggles modern Americans face as they work each day to make their livings. In “The Middle” (part two of four), he sheds light on the country’s middle class families and how most citizens still belong to them, even though they have been underrepresented in the media for the last 40 years.

Pedro Pascal (“Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World” – CNN)
Pascal, who is also up for Best Drama Actor (“The Last of Us”) and Best Comedy Guest Actor (“Saturday Night Live”), is the first person in Emmys history to be simultaneously nominated for a voice performance award and two other acting ones. Aside from Bassett (2020), those who preceded him in concurrently competing for narration and physical acting Emmys were Ewan McGregor (2017), Liev Schreiber (2017), and Sterling K. Brown (2021). The Chilean-born actor has submitted the “Mountains” installment of “Patagonia,” which takes viewers on a detailed journey up to the Andes peaks.

So, who will win the 2023 Emmy for Best Narrator? The truth is, regardless of how deserving he was and is, Obama’s 2022 victory wasn’t exactly undeniable, and now the novelty of giving the beloved president an Emmy has worn off. What’s more, this award has only ever gone to narrators of nature or history programs, and his new series fits into neither genre.

One might think to look to Bassett, especially since she’s still having a moment following her “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” awards run and can’t lose to Attenborough for a third time, but she will have to overcome the fact that no one has ever taken this prize for a stand-alone special. Voters could feasibly decide to throw Pascal a bone here, and one certainly can’t count out Freeman when it comes to a narration award. Also considering Attenborough’s 2019 win for “Our Planet,” nature narrator (and Emmy-less legend) Freeman arguably poses the greatest threat to Obama, whose potential back-to-back victory certainly wouldn’t come as a surprise.

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