In a year in which America (and Hollywood) was shaken by the coronavirus and by Black Lives Matter protests, Emmy voters sought inclusion across the ballot
Faced with choosing a slate of nominees to represent the state of television in a tumultuous year, voters from the Television Academy understood that 2020 could not be business as usual at the Emmys.
In a year in which America (and Hollywood) was shaken by the coronavirus and by Black Lives Matter protests after the death of George Floyd, Emmy voters left out a few old favorites and made room for a slate of nominees that reached for diversity and inclusion across the ballot.
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So two-time winner Elisabeth Moss was left out of the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category for “Handmaid’s Tale,” but the young actress Zendaya got a surprise nomination for HBO’s “Euphoria.” William Jackson Harper got his first nomination for “The Good Place,” supplanting some past winners that included Alec Baldwin for “Saturday Night Live,” Ty Burrell for “Modern Family” and Louie Anderson for “Baskets.” Tim Blake Nelson, considered the top limited-series supporting-actor contender from “Watchmen,” was passed over in favor of a trio of castmates, Louis Gossett Jr., Jovan Adepo and Yahya Abdul-Mateen.
On their way to setting a new Emmy record for the largest number of nonwhite acting nominees, voters tried their best to come up with a lineup that to some degree reflected the times we’re living in, even if it meant leaving past favorites and expected nominees by the wayside.
Also Read: Emmy Nominees: The Complete List
In many cases, that meant saluting the show but not the performer. “Better Call Saul” was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series, but stars Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks and the long-overdue Rhea Seehorn were not. “Curb Your Enthusiasm” was once again nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, but Larry David didn’t get an acting nod this time around. “Unbelievable” made it into the Outstanding Limited Series category, but only supporting actress Toni Collette was recognized while stars Kaitlyn Dever and Merritt Wever were left out.
If those juxtapositions make Emmy voters seem inconsistent, that’s because to a certain degree they always have been. With 23,000 voting members who cast ballots on the basis of the Television Academy peer group they’re in, the Emmys have rarely spoken with a single voice about anything — and if they did that more than usual this year, it was to say that the awards should include a lot of different perspectives, from “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” to “Insecure,” “Schitt’s Creek” to “Ramy,” “The Crown” to “The Mandalorian,” “Mrs. America” to “Unorthodox.”
And yes, it should even include Joe Exotic: “Tiger King,” the first virus-era show to go viral, picked up six nominations, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.
As we now try to figure out what shows have the inside track to win Emmys, it’s worth nothing that even without the pandemic or the protests, this was always going to be a strange year at the Emmys.
Also Read: Netflix Tops HBO With Record 160 Emmy Nominations
Last year’s winners in the Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Comedy Series categories — “Game of Thrones” and “Fleabag,” respectively — have both gone off the air and are no longer in the running. The last time the two reigning series champions were both ineligible was 1978, when “Upstairs, Downstairs” and “The Mary Tyler Moore” shows had ended their runs after winning the top prizes for their final seasons.
So the 2020 Emmys face a situation it hasn’t seen in 42 years, with the potential for a couple of other shows to take those marquee awards for the first time. (Of course, 2017 drama winner “The Handmaid’s Tale” and 2018 comedy winner “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” could slip in and win again, too.)
And now the Television Academy has to figure out what the Emmy show itself should look like, with odds increasing daily that a physical show with a red carpet and a full audience is all but impossible. But even if they somehow manage to pull off a standard Emmy ceremony, Tuesday’s nominations all but ensured that things are still going to look, and feel, quite different.
It’s that kind of year, and this is that kind of Emmys.
Emmy Nominations 2020: Snubs and Surprises, From Bob Odenkirk to Baby Yoda (Photos)
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Between Elisabeth Moss and Bob Odenkirk getting pushed out of their respective categories and an unexpected nomination for "What We Do in the Shadows," Tuesday's Emmy nominations announcement came with more than its share of surprises.
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FXSurprise: "What We Do in the Shadows" FX's series adaptation of the vampire mockumetary from Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi only secured two below the line nominations for its first season, but it's second outing scored big with eight nominations, including an Outstanding Comedy Series nod.
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Disney+
Surprise: "The Mandalorian" Drama heavyweight "Game of Thrones" was out of the running this year, leaving room for a new series to sneak in among a slew of past nominees like "Better Call Saul," "The Handmaid's Tale" and "The Crown." But instead of Apple TV+'s "The Morning Show," voters went with a different new streaming service, nominated Disney+'s "The Mandalorian."
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AMC
Snub: Bob Odenkirk, "Better Call Saul" Odenkirk has been a perennial nominee in the lead actor category since 2015, but this year the "Better Call Saul" star was overlooked in favor of a pair of actors from "Succession" and "The Morning Show" star Steve Carell.
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Hulu
Snub: Elisabeth Moss, "The Handmaid's Tale" Moss won the award for lead actress in a drama series in 2017 and has been nominated numerous times in the past, but, like "This Is Us" star Mandy Moore and "How to Get Away With Murder's" Viola Davis, failed to make the cut for the most recent season of "Handmaid's Tale."
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HBO
Surprise: Zendaya, "Euphoria" In a category comprised mostly of returning players, dark horse candidate Zendaya managed to sneak a lead actress nod for her role on the HBO drama "Euphoria," slipping in alongside fellow category newcomer Jennifer Aniston of "The Morning Show."
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HBO
Snub: "Big Little Lies" HBO's Liane Moriarty adaptation was the belle of awards season in 2017, all but sweeping the limited series categories with its roster of big-name stars including Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon. But Season 2's move to the drama series category hurt the show, leaving "Big Little Lies" with only two nominations for supporting stars Laura Dern and Meryl Streep.
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Fox
Surprise: "The Masked Singer" Fox's absurdist singing competition finally became too big for Emmy voters to ignore in Season 2, shaking up the Oustanding Competition Program category with 10-time winner "The Amazing Race" ineligible this year.
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HBO
Snub: "Westworld" Turns out "Westworld" wasn't the "Game of Thrones" successor HBO hoped iy would be, earning only two acting nods for its third season, for supporting actors Thandie Newton and Jeffrey Wright, and missing out on the marquee drama series category entirely.
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Netflix
Snub: Kaitlyn Dever, Merritt Wever, "Unbelievable" For much of the voting period, the two stars of Netflix's harrowing "Unbelievable" seemed like locks for lead actress in a limited series nominations, but neither made the cut in a crowded category, not even TV Academy darling Merritt Wever, who has twice before pulled out a surprise upset on Emmy night.
”Better Call Saul“ and ”The Handmaid’s Tale“ leads miss out, while ”What We Do in the Shadows“ sneaks in
Between Elisabeth Moss and Bob Odenkirk getting pushed out of their respective categories and an unexpected nomination for "What We Do in the Shadows," Tuesday's Emmy nominations announcement came with more than its share of surprises.
Steve Pond
Steve Pond has been writing about film, music, pop culture and the entertainment industry for more than 40 years. He has served as TheWrap’s awards editor and executive editor, awards since joining the company in 2009. Steve began his career writing about music for the Los Angeles Times, where he remained a contributor for more than 15 years, and Rolling Stone, where he was West Coast Music Editor and wrote 16 cover stories. He moved into film coverage with a weekly column in the Washington Post and became a contributing writer at Premiere magazine, where he became the first journalist to have all access to the Academy Awards show and rehearsals. He has also written for the New York Times, Movieline, the DGA Quarterly, GQ, Playboy, the Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, New York, the Christian Science Monitor, Live! magazine and many others. He is the author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller “The Big Show: High Times and Dirty Dealings Backstage at the Academy Awards” (Faber and Faber, 2005). He has also written “Elvis in Hollywood” (New American Library, 1990) and contributed to books that include “Cash,” “The Rolling Stone Reader,” U2: The Rolling Stone Files,” “Bruce Springsteen: The Rolling Stone Files” and “The Rolling Stone Interviews: The 1980s.” He was the co-managing editor of the syndicated TV news program “The Industry News” and the creative consultant for the A&E series “The Inside Track With Graham Nash.” He has won L.A. Press Club awards for stories in TheWrap, the Los Angeles Times and Playboy, and was nominated for a National Magazine Award for a story in Premiere.