Emmy Reactions Survey Pt 1: Fav Nominations, Snubs, and the Problematic "Guest" Categories
Tuesday, July 28, 2020 at 7:42PM HBO's Watchmen and Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs Maisel led the Emmy nominations with 26 and 20 nominations respectively though it was Netflix that had the biggest morning, breaking the record for most nominations (previously held by HBO) with 160 (!!!). As is our habit we polled Team Experience on their reactions. Here's what they had to say about the following three questions which we hope you'll answer, too, in the comments.
- What was your favourite surprise this morning?
- What omission perplexes or enrages you?
- How would you fix the guest categories which are now just like the other categories repeating the same performers each year (series regulars with small parts instead of true "guests")?
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE SURPRISE NOMINATION?
MURTADA ELFADL: Paul Mescal in Normal People. I didn’t see a better male performance on TV this year. But the internet kept telling me he was a long shot. Happy he was included. I’m also ecstatic that - no surprise - Cate Blanchett received her first Emmy nomination. Not just because she’s my favorite actor but her work in episodes 5 through the finale of Mrs America is tremendous. When she inevitably wins honorary awards they will play the last few minutes of the show - the phone call and its aftermath - in her clip reel. It belongs up there with her best ever performances.
SPENCER COILE: The internet sure seems to have a complicated relationship with Paul Mescal and his general hotness. But his performance on Normal People is THE leading actor performance of the year, so I clutched my replica gold chain and breathed a sigh of relief when I heard his name this morning (I don’t actually have a gold chain, but imagine).
LYNN LEE: Insecure breaks through in comedy, hurray, and Yvonne Orji gets a supporting nod! I thought Issa Rae had a pretty good shot for comedy lead, but that show is really a two-hander and Orji is terrific as the Miranda/Charlotte to Issa's Carrie.
JUAN CARLOS OJANO: Unorthodox happening big time. Shira Haas was my 'no guts, no glory' pick in Limited Series Actress, but I love how it was nominated for Limited Series and more. It was easily better than some of the "frontrunners".
ERIC BLUME: Shira Haas making it in for Unorthodox was a wonderful surprise, and the rare case of a non-famous actor making it into a very competitive category simply on the quality of the performance.
NATHANIEL: It took me an hour or two to notice it but once I saw it I was ecstatic that Maya Rudolph's incredible vocal genius was finally honored for her "Hormone Monstress" from one of the two or three best comedies on air, Big Mouth. I wasn't expecting it at all because the "voiceover" category has traditionally been a dumpster fire, rarely honoring inventive hilarious performances (the likes of Bob's Burgers and Big Mouth and Archer have been stiffed every year) like Rudolph's and usually just focuses on 'how many Emmys can we give Family Guy?'
EUROCHEESE: So I don't know if she counts as a surprise, but D'Arcy Carden finally getting in for The Good Place gave me so much joy. William Jackson Harper joining her was so sweet as well.
R GABRIEL MAYORA: William Jackson Harper’s nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He did consistently hilarious work throughout all four seasons of The Good Place, but his work in this season’s “The Answer” was simply sublime.
WHAT OMISSION PERPLEXES OR ENRAGES YOU?
SPENCER COILE: Tom Pelphrey gave one of the richest television performances I’ve (ever??) seen on Ozark. It’s a true shame that in a field of EIGHT, he couldn’t break through. And if you need evidence, just watch his opening monologue from 3x09. Chilling and heartbreaking.
LYNN LEE: The complete shutout of HBO's The Plot Against America. It wasn't surprising, but it was disheartening, as David Simon's thoughtfully updated (and all too timely) take on Philip Roth's quiet nightmare was SO much better as both an adaptation and a series than Little Fires Everywhere. Also, Zoe Kazan should have gotten a nod as the Jewish mom who's just barely holding her family together in the face of increasingly overt and terrifying fascism.
BEN MILLER: Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler on Better Call Saul is again denied!?!?!? Make it make sense. Critical acclaim on a wildly popular show. I assume she keeps missing the nomination because she isn't as famous as the actual nominees. That's the only thing that makes sense.
R GABRIEL MAYORA: I will never understand how the Emmys continue to overlook the best, most surprising performance in Better Call Saul: the incomparable Rhea Seehorn. I thought she could win this year so to see her get ignored for her best season yet was utterly enraging.
NATHANIEL: Since the two performers I was most worried about DID get nominated, all of my sadness and anger has to pool around Kaitlyn Dever for Unbelievable. All three of the central performances are incredible but Collette and Wever both already have Emmy statues so it would have been wonderful to see Dever honored since she is so deserving
EUROCHEESE: It's a toss up. All that love for The Good Place and we still can't find room for Kristen Bell? Love her so much. But I also continue to be confused why The Good Fight, one of the best shows currently running, can't get love for anything, not even Baranski's fantastic lead performance.
MURTADA ELFADL: The Emmys didn’t love Hollywood much, but still more than I did. I enjoyed Jeremy Pope’s and Holland Taylor’s performances but my favorite on that show was Joe Mantello and I would have loved to see him recognized.
JUAN CARLOS OJANO: The Handmaid's Tale in many acting categories. I am livid. Its third season wasn't its strongest, but I'd be damned if the acting wasn't consistently phenomenal. Ann Dowd had a terrific episode on her own, Julie Dretzin was heart-wrenching, Christopher Meloni was a dominating presence, and O-T Fagbenle had a great submission. AND ELISABETH FREAKING MOSS AND YVONNE FREAKING STRAHOVSKI. Good for Bradley Whitford, Samira Wiley, and Alexis Bledel, but it's not enough. It's not as if the show wasn't acknowledged by the Academy; it got fourteen acting nominations for its first two seasons. Ten nominations for this show is still underperforming.
ERIC BLUME: The Great made it in for directing and writing, its actors were inexplicably absent. With all due respect to the wonderful ladies who are nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy (especially Christina Applegate, who is marvelous), Elle Fanning is acting circles around most of them in the year's most complex, complete, and beautifully calibrated major performance. Ditto for Nicholas Hoult, who outdoes every man in the Supporting Actor category as well.
HOW WOULD YOU FIX THE "GUEST" CATEGORIES?
NATHANIEL: The only solution is a juried non-everyone-votes style award as its such a strange and diffuse idea to pick out short little non-regular performances in all sorts of series. There also needs to be some limits on how many times you can compete for playing the same character. If you appear in a few episodes of every season, why should you be eligible ? Aren't you just one of the supporting actors? It spoils the idea of the category. It's very clear from the nominations each year that it's all about starpower (and Saturday Night Live) and not really about performances at all. Which is a shame as little performances can have tremendous merit and are a great way for less famous actors to start building stronger careers. Imagine if the Television Academy actually looked out for non-famous actors who made an impression when they got a cool little opportunity to show their gifts.
SPENCER COILE: Let’s say it together now: remove SNL actors from all Comedy acting lineups and put them in their own category! Enough is enough!
EUROCHEESE: Why don't we have a separate award for best variety host? SNL could mostly fill it every year. That would make room. I don't mind repeats in the category but hosting a comedy variety show feels like a different thing.
BEN MILLER: I know a lot of people have been criticizing it, but Brad Pitt on Saturday Night Live is a great example of what this category should be. Even shows I don't watch, I know the performers who are going to be nominated each year. Cherry Jones, Margo Martindale, Bob Newhart, etc. They should have a screentime limitation. The Fleabag nominees from last year (KST and Fiona Shaw) are perfect-length nominees.
GABRIEL MAYORA: They keep fucking up this category every time they implement new rules. First of all, they need to limit the SNL guest performances to hosts, the Brad Pitt nomination is unacceptable. Second, they need to define what a “guest” performance constitutes, perhaps even limit the number of episodes even more. Remember when character actors like Michael Emerson could win in this category for a brief, memorable arc? I miss that.
JUAN CARLOS OJANO: I'm actually kinda okay with the rules, as long as they follow the episode count limit. The nominations from anthology series are puzzling though; some are campaigned supporting, some are in guest. What gives?
your turn readers -- agree or disagree with these takes?
Reader Comments (35)
Zendaya getting an Emmy nod! Hooray!!!!
I'm most happy about William Jackson Harper get his first nomination! He deserved one and in my opinion a win last year for his nihilism speech. And now he gets another showcase with his speech about waves and the afterlife. He monologues so well and I'm glad he is finally getting recognized.
However what happened to his scene partner Kristen Bell? This season is the best work she has ever done in her career. In the waves scene she listens so well to Jackson Harper. You can see her changing from scared and sad to peaceful acceptance. Beautiful scene. She should have been recognized as well.
Most happy for Zendaya and all the Watchmen love. I was surprised that Reese Witherspoon didn't get a nomination, but maybe having three eligible performances backfired on her.
Zendaya
Merritt
Ban SNL
I truly thought a limited series with a significant portion of dialogue in Yiddish would stumble. Over the moon at the nominations for limited series and Best Actress for the incomparable Shira Haas.
92,8% of the industry is Jewish, James.
Guest nominations should be about how often someone has appeared in the series as well as the season, in my opinion. Something along the lines of you become ineligible if you've appeared in more than three episodes of the total series.
Again, Tituss Burgess should win at least once for Titus Andromedon!
Where are Kidman and Byrne?
Some months ago I knew the existence of the sketch show MadTV that I've been watching online and is shocking to me to know that no one of the members of the cast received a single nomination to the Emmys.
Is very clear that the love/obsession from the Emmys with SNL is about the indu$try because even when the show is not nominated as comedy series they nominate a famous name literally every year, i mean LITERALLY.
They should have cancelled the category after my death.
There used to be a category called Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program. At other times it was called Outstanding Achievement by a Supporting Performer in Music or Variety. Liza Minnelli or Cher were frequent nominees. Granted, most of the time it was music specials, but Variety would cover everythig, right? In any case, they could change the name of the category and adapt ir so that all SNL guests are included in it.
Anyone else really think Zendeya is a horrible actress?
Kerry is worse
Gabriel Mayora, don't swear.
What was your favorite surprise this morning? I hadn't looked at predictions in a while so many of these were surprises to me, but maybe not for everyone else? Very happy to see Cherry Jones, Kieran Culkin, Jeremy Strong, and Sarah Snook for Succession. Happy to see Annie Murphy and Dan Levy make it into their lineups too.
What omission perplexes or enrages you? I'm on the Rhea Seehorn bandwagon. The world needs more Rhea... hopefully she gets great parts when she moves on from BCS.
How would you fix the guest categories? Put a limit to the number of episodes per season before it no longer qualifies as a "guest" appearance.
Most happy for Jeremy Strong and Matthew Macfadyen. I was holding my breath for both of them. Jeremy Strong gave my favorite performance in any medium last year.
Most enraged that Sarah Paulson did not get nominated for Mrs. America, but I'm not really perplexed - playing a real-life figure always impresses awards bodies more than creating a wholly fictional character, so even though she was best in show, she was a step behind her costars.
Very happy about Zendaya nom
Very sad about Russell Crowe His performance in The Loudest Voice SCARY real...
And my favorite show in years My Brilliant Friend snubbed in all categories
Nothing better in Design Music Acting Writing Casting Directing
Truly, no omission perplexes me. There is objectively, empirically too much tv on too many platforms. It's a miracle when anything finds an audience. In a media climate like this, of course only consensus and common denominator picks can cut through the noise. Plenty of people are doing great work, but the odds are ridiculous.
Trent & Atticus are twice nominated. I hope they win as it means... Trent is one award away from getting a EGOT! Suck on that Fred Durst you ugly fat-fuck.
Oomphh.... Ben Mendelsohn did not get in :( But so happy for my Queen Blanchett!!!
Wasn't Bette Midler in every - or nearly every - episode of The Politician? How is she in the Guest category?
Wasn't Bette Midler in every - or nearly every - episode of The Politician? How is she in the Guest category?
I’m thrilled for Haas/Unorthordox, D’Arcy Carden and all the love for Schitt’s Creek. The omission Kaitlyn Dever stings hardest - she was phenomenal in Unbelievable.
Also disappointed that Tobias Menzies didn’t make the cut for The Crown, as I thought his was the outstanding performance of Season 3. His work in moon landings episode is a true masterclass.
A Black Lady Sketch Show is the funniest thing on the planet. I hope it wins Variety Sketch Series and that Angela Bassett wins Guest Actress. Hysterical.
Jeremy- Bette Midler was in one single episode of The Politician's first season.
I’m really happy about Cecily Strong’s nomination - she was great this season. However, I wouldn’t mind seeing them create a variety performance category again. I could see that including things like HBO comedy specials and SNL, and broadcasting it on the air would be fine too. Even a variety male and variety female category.
I’ll say, guest performances like Maya’s and Brad Pitt’s are fun. They gave genuinely funny turns. The guest category has always gone for short, but hilarious performances (Bette Midler in her Murphy Brown Cameo). However, I’d prefer things like that be nominated over, say, a guest host (who gets an entire episode).
Jeremy -- yeah, i think Bette is a regular now in season 2 (i'm not sure i dont watch) but in season 1 just one epsiode.
I think my favorite surprise is William Jackson Harper and D'Arcy Carden getting their first nominations for the final season of The Good Place. Like obviously I'm ecstatic that Schitt's Creek got ALL that love for their final season (Dan Levy and Annie Murphy noms to boot!), but it was hardly surprising. The Good Place is literally the ONLY network show in Drama/Comedy and they've previously ignored any actor not named Ted Danson so these nods really were shocking to me.
Rhea Seehorn not getting nominated again, especially in this expanded field, is so perplexing. I think the show/network even made it a point to pretty much campaign JUST FOR HER (to the detriment of Odenkirk who for the first time didn't make the short list?) and still nothing. But not nominating any of the amazing trans actors in POSE (Mj Rodriguez and Angelica Ross especially) falls more in the "enrages" section since I'm definitely not perplexed why they didn't make it in. The industry still has a lot of work to do.
Very happy for all the "Schitt's Creek" love and I'm in the camp that thinks Paul Mescal gave the best male performance of the year but the one that made me happiest was the Comedy Series nod for "What We Do In The Shadows", in all it's over-the-top, laugh out loud brilliance.
Rhea Seehorn needs to host SNL.
WTF does Rhea Seehorn have to do? WHAT?
Favorite nomination is Paul Mescal. Only wish the show and Daisy Edgar-Jones were also honored.
The omission that perplexed me was "At Home with Amy Sedaris" from the variety sketch series category. For one, they only nominated three shows, and two, it's a hilarious show. Sedaris and her crew never fail to make me giggle with each episode. I don't know how her weekly guest stars aren't nominees in the guest actor category as well.
I guess I was the only one who liked I Know This Much Is True.
I read this book by Wally Lamb 20 yrs. ago and was pleasantly surprised to see it turned into a series on HBO. It was certainly brave of Mark Ruffalo to take on these characters, which he did exceptionally well in my opinion. He is a great actor and should have gotten some recognition for this part.