The Emmys Need Ensemble Cast Categories
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Emmy nominations came out this week, and while the shows that garnered the most nods were not necessarily a surprise (Succession, Ted Lasso, Squid Game), there were a few notable snubs.
It's inevitable that there will be worthwhile shows and performers left off the nominee list. In this "golden age" of television we're purportedly living through, there were a whopping 171 dramas on the ballot, 118 comedies, and 61 limited or anthology series—and 2,800 performers (up from 1,865 last year). However, we were still mystified by some of the names excluded.
For example: Why did Steve Martin and Martin Short get nods for Outstanding Lead Actor in a comedy, but Selena Gomez, who rounds out their trio in Only Murders in the Building, miss out in the Outstanding Lead Actress category? How come the Emmy voters didn't recognize the outstanding and groundbreaking historical drama Pachinko? (The Apple TV+ drama only received a single nomination, for Outstanding Main Title Design—their opening credits are incredible—but deserved to be in the Outstanding Drama category.) Why did Bridgerton only score three nominations this year—a voice-over nod for Julie Andrews, period costumes, and period hairstyling—but last season earned recognition in the Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama categories?
We can go on and on about the snubs (Reservation Dogs! Yellowstone! The Righteous Gemstones!), but let's focus in on the supporting performer categories, where there was the clearest indication that the Emmy nomination system needs some adjusting. The acting snubs are—at least in part—a result of new-ish Emmy rules. Previously, the number of nominations in a given category was set; now it's dependent on the total number of submissions for that category. In 2020, the Academy of Television Arts and Science instituted a sliding scale of nominee slots.
Hypothetically, this "sliding scale" of nominees should translate to a more diverse group of shows nominated. However, without a fixed number of slots in each category, the Academy simply instructs its members to "vote for all entries in this category that you have seen and feel are worthy of a nomination." As Scott Feinberg writes in the Hollywood Reporter, this leads to a form of "groupthink" for acting categories.
"Even if voters are seeing more shows than they did decades ago, not all are watching the same shows, so this selection process obviously benefits the handful of 'prestige shows'—those from popular networks/platforms that have strong word-of-mouth and substantial campaigns behind them—that all, or at least most, members are watching, because those are likely to accumulate the most nomination votes," Feinberg argues. He proposes that a finite number of slots would encourage voters to spread the nominations across a greater diversity of shows.
The supporting acting categories were dominated by ensemble casts from the same few shows this year—and perhaps that category provides the Emmys with the best opportunity to include more standout television.
This year, there were a record-breaking 434 actors on the ballot for Outstanding Supporting Actor, Drama for the maximum eight spots and 385 actresses for Outstanding Supporting Actress, Drama. Therefore, if a voter has seen—and enjoyed—a show like Succession, it makes sense that they will simply vote for every actor that's on the list—instead of limiting themselves to just one (or two) and spreading their votes amongst other shows.
The new-ish rules are how we ended up with 14 (!!) actors from Succession nominated, 10 from Ted Lasso, and 8 from The White Lotus. In the case of The White Lotus, Connie Britton, Jennifer Coolidge, Alexndra Daddario, Natasha Rothwell, and Syndey Sweeney are all competing in the same category: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or TV movie.
Side note: Is The White Lotus even a limited series? The show is already set to return for a second season—with Coolidge reprising her role—and many of the cast members have demonstrated interest in returning in future installments.
The Emmys think so. Per the official rules, a limited series is "a program with two (2) or more episodes with a total running time of at least 150 program minutes that tells a complete, non-recurring story. The story arc must be completely resolved within its season, with no on-going storyline and/or main characters in subsequent seasons."
"We take each of these case by case," TV Academy president/COO Maury McIntyre explained to Variety about the Emmy categories. “In terms of White Lotus, which was a big success for HBO, it’s coming back next year. We can only go off of what we know since we haven’t seen the second year yet."
Possibly category fraud issues aside, there is a solution here in addition to having a set number of nominees (versus a sliding scale): an award for Outstanding Ensemble for dramas, comedies, and limited/anthology series. Instead of just nominating the majority of performers on a single show, this would allow voters to recognize shows where there is no one standout actor or actress—or perhaps recognize the ensemble plus one or two standout performances.
There's a precedent, too: the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) recognize the best ensemble in both drama and comedy, and the best cast in a motion picture, at their annual awards. The Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series award went to Succession in 2021 and The Crown in 2020—perfect examples of extremely strong ensemble dramas. At the SAG Awards, the ensemble categories are in addition to single performance awards—and they don't take away from those individual achievements. Rather, they acknowledge the magic of a cast that works extremely well together, and wouldn't work without the entire ensemble.
Because, truly, the "supporting actor/actress" categories at the Emmys have started to be dominated by ensemble casts—making no room for other standout performances. There's simply too much great TV out there for the categories to be full of an increasingly small list of shows.
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