‘The Walking Dead’ Finally Gets Its Emmy Moment — Sorta — and Other Trivia From 2023’s Nominations
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Remember AMC’s “The Walking Dead”? You know, the biggest series on TV at one time. Most-watched basic cable show in history, and I can guarantee that will never be topped. But yet, an Emmy dud. The series (which will live on via a frenzy of spin-offs) ended its run last November after 11 seasons… and it’s still ignored by TV Academy voters, failing to pick up a single nomination on Wednesday.
And yet… this may have been the most successful year at the Emmys ever for “The Walking Dead.” That’s because two of the franchise’s most beloved actors, Steven Yeun and Jon Bernthal, picked up their first-ever Emmy nominations. Granted, it’s not for “The Walking Dead” — Yeun is nominated in lead limited/anthology actor for “Beef” and Bernthal is a comedy guest actor nominee for “The Bear” (which is about… Chicago’s “Beef” restaurant) — but at least it’s a belated victory for two actors that made a name for themselves by fighting zombies.
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It’s actually a year of finally acknowledging several overdue TV staples: “How I Met Your Mother” star Jason Segel finally gets a comedy actor nod for “Shrinking,” “Shameless” star Jeremy Allen White gets one for “The Bear,” James Marsden gets one… for playing himself on “Jury Duty,” “Parks and Recreation” staple Audrey Plaza is finally recognized (but for “The White Lotus”), “Fringe” star Anna Torv gets one for “The Last Of Us”…. And in the most delayed instance, “A Different World” icon Jasmine Guy gets her first Emmy nomination, for a short titled “The Chronicles of Jessica Wu.”
It was a bit of a thin year for Emmy trivia — no new records for comedy series (although “Ted Lasso” came close, with 21, one shy of “30 Rock’s” record of 22 in 2009) or drama (“Succession,” with 27, is a few shy of the “Game of Thrones” count of 32 in 2019). But there were a few morsels: Paris Barclay became the first Black director to be nominated in drama (“NYPD Blue”), comedy (“Glee”) and now limited (“Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”). Amazon Freevee’s “Jury Duty” marks the first major series nomination for a free AVOD service. And “The Last of Us” pulled off the record for new youngest guest actor nominee, for 10-year-old Keivonn Montreal Woodard.
Here is a roundup of a few more odd, unusual and just plain unique— but mostly trivial — takeaways from this year’s nominations:
GAME THE EMMYS: It’s Year One of the new game show Emmy alignment, in which both daytime and primetime gamers are now a part of the Primetime Emmys, shifting to L.A.-based TV Academy oversight from its previous home at the New York-based National Academy of TV Arts and Sciences’ Daytime Emmys. So, confusion was likely to happen, and it has: In both the outstanding game show and outstanding game show host categories, shows including “Jeopardy!,” “Family Feud” and “Wheel of Fortune” are nominated — but credited to ABC.
So, are these just for the primetime versions? Not quite. Insiders have confirmed that ABC, Sony (which produces “Wheel” and “Jeopardy!”) and Fremantle (which produces “Family Feud”) submitted those shows’ daytime and primetime runs jointly, all in one. That way, a primetime “Celebrity Family Feud” wouldn’t compete with the daytime “Family Feud.” But it’s still unclear why only ABC was credited for those shows, rather than both ABC and syndication — since the daytime runs of those three shows are syndicated. (The prime access versions of “Wheel” and “Jeopardy!” run on ABC-owned stations in major markets, which is why they’re so identified as ABC gamers — but they’re still syndicated.)
“The Price Is Right” airs on CBS in daytime and in primetime, which is why there’s less of an issue of that show being submitted as one franchise under the Eye network. The only other shows nominated in the two categories, NBC’s “Password” and “That’s My Jam,” are only in primetime. Variety asked the TV Academy why “Jeopardy!,” “Wheel of Fortune” and “Family Feud” weren’t jointly credited to ABC and syndication, and was told that — just as FX shows on Hulu are credited to FX, despite only airing on Hulu — the org no longer validates network claims. “Tracking was done one way — tracked by submitter. The interpretation of who owns what nomination is up to the individual entity to claim,” a spokesperson said.
CLASH OF THE TITANS: What’s the more impressive faceoff? Carol Burnett vs. Norman Lear in a National Treasure battle royale? They’re up for variety special (pre-recorded), with NBC’s “Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love” and ABC’s “Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music & Laughter.” At least they both still have their laughter. Meanwhile, in variety special (live), Rihanna’s Super Bowl Halftime Show is up against Elton John’s farewell from Dodger Stadium. In the character voice-over performance category, Mel Brooks (“History of the World, Part II”) is up against another legend, Julie Andrews (“Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story”). And then there’s the faceoff between the country’s two greatest human beings: Dolly Parton (with her NBC movie “Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas”) vs. Weird Al Yankovic (Roku’s “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”) in TV movie.
MAKING MUSIC: Speaking of Parton, Yankovic, Rihanna and John, other musicians in the hunt for Emmys include the late Notorious B.I.G. (for Gunpowder & Sky’s Facebook/Meta Horizon Worlds’ “The Notorious B.I.G. Sky’s the Limit: A VR Concert Experience”); Kid Cudi (Netflix’s “Entergalactic”); Gorillaz (Google’s “Gorillaz Presents”); The Weeknd (Max’s “The Weeknd Live at SoFi Stadium”); Danny Elfman (“Wednesday”); and Ed Sheeran, who’s among the nominees for the “Ted Lasso” song “A Beautiful Game.” (Among Sheeran’s competitors in that category: Yankovic, for the tune “Now You Know.”) Lizzo, meanwhile, has two different programs nominated: “Lizzo: Live in Concert” and “Love, Lizzo.” See more about this year’s music-related nominees here.
GENRE FLUID: We talk a lot about whether “comedy” or “drama” classifications even matter now, in an age of dramatic half-hours landing comedy nominations. In some categories, however, the competition is already mixed. Outstanding cinematography for a series (half hour), for example, has “Atlanta,” “Barry,” “How I Met Your Father,” “Only Murders In the Building” and “Schmigadoon!” as well as “The Mandalorian” competing against each other. And in the cinematography for hour-long shows, “Wednesday” (considered a comedy) and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” are up against the likes of “The Crown” and “House of the Dragon.” Another interesting one: Outstanding contemporary costumes for a series has “Emily in Paris,” “The Last of Us,” “Only Murders in the Building,” “Succession,” “Wednesday” and “The White Lotus” all competing against each other. And contemporary hairstyling is where you can see “Abbott Elementary,” “Emily in Paris” and “Ted Lasso” battle “The Last of Us,” “P-Valley” and “The White Lotus.”
EXTRA APPLE BITES: Not only does Apple TV+ boast a wide array of Emmy noms for programs like “Ted Lasso,” “Bad Sisters” and “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” but Apple itself also landed four nominations in the outstanding commercial category. That included one for Apple TV+ (“Call Me with Timothee Chalamet”), as well as one for AirPods (“Quiet the Noise”) and two more for the company, “The Greatest — Accessibility” and “R.I.P. Leon.” They’re up against spots from Dove, The Farmer’s Dog and Squarespace. Apple TV+ included those four noms in its tally of 54 (even the TV Academy classifies commercials as having “no network affiliation,” and doesn’t list those four under Apple TV+).
ROYAL CLASH: When it comes to the outstanding period costumes for a series category, pick your Queen: Elizabeth II (“The Crown”), Catherine the Great (“The Great”) or Charlotte (“Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story”).
DRAGONS vs. RINGS: Despite the ballyhooed debate over HBO’s “House of the Dragon” vs. Prime Video’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” the two shows are only competing in a handful of categories: Outstanding fantasy/sci-fi costumes, prosthetic makeup, sound editing for a comedy or drama series (one hour) and special visual effects in a season or a movie.
BATTLE OF THE FINALES: The directing and writing categories often lean toward series pilots and finales, and this year the directing for a comedy series category is particularly rife with them: The series enders for “Barry,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Ted Lasso” (maybe?) are all in the mix.
MOONLIGHTING: Perhaps they didn’t get a nom for the role they’re known for. But some Emmy contenders are still celebrating nods for their other gig. Among them: “Shrinking” star Christa Miller is Emmy nominated in music supervision for her work on “Ted Lasso,” while “Yellowjackets” star Juliette Lewis has a supporting actress in a limited series nod for “Welcome to Chippendales.”
OVERACHIEVERS: There’s no one else quite like Pedro Pascal, nominated for lead actor in a drama (“The Last of Us”), guest actor in a comedy (“Saturday Night Live”) and narrator (“Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World”). Plenty of people are dominated multiple times for acting/directing/writing, etc. But other performers with multiple nods in front of the camera include Melanie Lynskey (“Yellowjackets” and “The Last of Us”), Quinta Brunson (“Abbott Elementary” and “Saturday Night Live”), Ali Wong (“Beef” and “Tuca & Bertie”), Alex Borstein (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Family Guy”) and Murray Bartlett (“Welcome to Chippendales” and “The Last of Us”).
OUTSTANDING EPK? The Emmys category for outstanding short form nonfiction or reality series is more a showcase for promotional videos than actual original content: “House of the Dragon: Inside the Episode,” “The Last of Us: Inside the Episode,” “Saturday Night Live: Behind the Sketch,” “Succession: Controlling the Narrative” and “The White Lotus: Unpacking the Episode.” Maybe send this category to Promax — the annual event for TV marketers — instead.
GOLDBAMA: Barack and Michelle Obama both have reason to attend this year’s Emmys. President Obama is nominated in outstanding narrator, for “Working: What We Do All Day,” while Michelle Obama’s “The Light We Carry: Michelle Obama & Oprah Winfrey” is nominated in outstanding hosted nonfiction series or special.
CENTURY MARK: We have our first triple-digit nominee. “Saturday Night Live” executive producer Lorne Michaels has hit 100 lifetime noms (and that number could jump to 102 once all production credits are in). That pushes him further ahead of second-place Sheila Nevins (77). Meanwhile, “Saturday Night Live” only received nine nominations this year, tied with 2022 and down from 21 in 2021. But that extended its lifetime nominations tally to 324, pushing it even further ahead of second place “Game of Thrones” (161).
CANCELED BUT NOT FORGOTTEN: “Call Me Kat” for outstanding picture editing for a multi-camera comedy series; “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies” for outstanding choreography for scripted programming (two noms); “The L Word: Generation Q” in outstanding original music and lyrics; “The Nevers” in outstanding special visual effects in a single episode; “Perry Mason” in production design for a narrative period or fantasy program (one hour or more) and period costumes for a series. And then there’s the most recognized canceled series: CNN’s “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy,” which received four noms, including hosted nonfiction series or special.
EMMY UPSTART: But hold on. That Emmy nomination for “The Nevers” didn’t go to HBO/Max, where the show originally aired. When Warner Bros. TV programmed the remaining unseen episodes of “The Nevers” on a FAST channel, they did it on Tubi. And because the episode nominated for outstanding special visual effects in a single episode was a previously unaired episode only seen on a Warner Bros. fast channel on Tubi, that means Tubi got credit for the nomination. And hence, Tubi has landed its first Emmy nod.
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