‘The Crown,’ ‘The Mandalorian’ lead with 24 Emmy nominations each
Netflix’s “The Crown” and Disney+’s “The Mandalorian” each scored a leading 24 nominations Tuesday for the 73rd annual Primetime Emmy Awards, with both landing among the nominees for outstanding drama series.
Also vying for the prize of best TV drama will be Prime Video’s “The Boys,” Netflix’s “Bridgerton,” Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” HBO’s “Lovecraft Country,” FX’s “Pose” and NBC’s “This is Us.”
For outstanding comedy series, nominations went to ABC’s “black- ish”; Netflix’s “Cobra Kai,” “The Kominsky Method” and “Emily in Paris”; HBO Max’s “Hacks” and “The Flight Attendant”; Hulu’s “Pen15” and Apple TV+’s “Ted Lasso.”
Netflix’s ratings and critical smash “The Queen’s Gambit” scored a nomination for outstanding limited or anthology series, along with HBO’s “I May Destroy You” and “Mare of Easttown”; Prime Video’s “The Underground Railroad” and Disney+’s “WandaVision.”
Nominated for outstanding actor in a drama series were Sterling K. Brown for “This is Us,” Jonathan Majors for “Lovecraft Country,” Josh O’Connor of “The Crown,” Rege-Jean Page of “Bridgerton,” Billy Porter for “Pose” and Matthew Rhys for HBO’s “Perry Mason.”
Lead drama actress nominations went to Uzo Aduba for HBO’s “In Treatment,” Olivia Colman and Emma Corrin for “The Crown,” Elisabeth Moss of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Mj Rodriguez of “Pose” and Jurnee Smollett of “Lovecraft Country.”
Rodriguez is the first transgender performer every nominated for an Emmy Award as a lead performer in an primetime series. Laverne Cox was nominated multiple times for a supporting-actress Emmy for “Orange is the New Black.”
For comedy series, outstanding actress nominations went to Aidy Bryant for Hulu’s “Shrill,” Kaley Cuoco for “The Flight Attendant,” Allison Janney for CBS’ “Mom,” Tracee Ellis Ross for “black-ish” and Jean Smart for “Hacks.” Comedy actor nominations went to Anthony Anderson of “black-ish,” Michael Douglas of “The Kominsky Method,” William H. Macy for Showtime’s “Shameless,” Jason Sudeikis of “Ted Lasso” and Kenan Thompson for NBC’s “Kenan.”
No new episodes of last year’s drama series winner, “Succession,” were broadcast during the eligibility period — June 1, 2020-May 31, 2021. The third season of the HBO series about a well-to-do family that owns a global media company will begin airing in the fall.
“This Is Us” is the only series on a major broadcast network to be nominated in the category since 2012, receiving nominations in 2017, 2018 and 2019. A series from the major broadcast networks has not won since Fox’s “24” in 2006.
Last year’s comedy series winner, POP TV’s “Schitt’s Creek,” ended its six-season run in April 2020. The most recent time a series from the major broadcast networks won in the comedy series category at the Emmys was 2014 when ABC’s “Modern Family” won for the fifth consecutive year.
Anthology series eligibility this year was moved into the outstanding limited series category, which has been renamed as outstanding limited or anthology series. Previously, an anthology series could enter the competition in either the comedy or drama series categories or entrants could break up the series into individually entered, stand-alone movies.
Anya Taylor-Joy leads the list of nominees in for best actress in a limited or anthology series for her performance as a chess prodiguy in “The Queen’s Gambit.” Also nominated were Michaela Coel for HBO’s “I May Destroy You,” Cynthia Erivo for NatGeo’s “Genius: Aretha,” Elizabeth Olson for “WandaVision” and Kate Winslet for “Mare of Easttown.”
Nominated for best actor in a limited or anthology series were Paul Bettany for “WandaVision,” Hugh Grant for HBO’s “The Undoing,” Ewan McGregor for Netflix’s “Halston” and Lin-Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odom Jr. for Disney+’s film version of “Hamilton.”
VH1’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the winner the past three years for outstanding competition series, was nominated for a fifth consecutive year. Bravo’s “Top Chef” was nominated for the 15th consecutive year and NBC’s “The Voice” for the 10th consecutive year. “The Amazing Race” also returned to the category. It was nominated in each of the first 17 years of the category but was not eligible last year because CBS did not air a new season during the eligibility period. It is a 10-time winner, including each of the first seven. Also nominated in the category was Netflix’s “Nailed It!”
Emmy nominations for variety-talk series went to “Conan,” which just ended its run on TBS; Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah”; ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live”; HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”; and CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
Other rules changes for 2021 include any programs that have been nominated for an Oscar are no longer eligible to enter the Primetime Emmy Awards competition, and any non-documentary film placed on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences wing platform for Oscar consideration was deemed a theatrical motion picture, and thus ineligible for the Emmy competition.
The category of outstanding stunt performance by an individual or team in a drama, comedy, limited series or movie has been created to recognize stunt performers themselves. Previously, there have only been stunt coordination categories.
Children’s programming, previously eligible in the Primetime Emmys, is now only eligible in the Daytime Emmy competition.
In another change for 2021, nominees and winners in any performer category titled “actor” or “actress” may request that their nomination certificate and Emmy statuette carry the term “performer” in place of actor or actress.
No performer category titled “actor” or “actress” has had a gender requirement for submissions.
Ron Cephas Jones and his daughter, Jasmine Cephas Jones, hosted the virtual nominations announcement Tuesday morning. The pair made Emmy history in 2020 when they became the first father-daughter duo to win performance Emmys in the same year. Television Academy Chairman and CEO Frank Scherma joined them for the nominations announcement.
The 73rd annual Primetime Emmy Awards will be presented Sept. 19 at the Microsoft Theater, with what the Television Academy described as “a limited audience of nominees and their guests.”
Cedric the Entertainer is scheduled to be the host.
The bulk of the 119 awards will be presented at the Creative Arts Emmys in September. Dates for the ceremonies have not been announced. Those awards are mainly in technical categories, such as picture editing, costuming, hairstyling, makeup and sound, but also include awards for guest acting.
HBO/HBO Max led among individual platforms with a total of 130 nominations, narrowly besting Netflix, which collected 129 nods. The Walt Disney Co.’s family of platforms collectively earned 146 nominations, led by Disney+’s 71.