Category Analysis: Are Three Nominees a Charm for 'Ted Lasso' in Comedy Directing?

Team Experience takes a look at the episode submissions for all the major Emmy categories. 

Apple TV+'s "Ted Lasso" earned three nominations for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series.

By: Christopher James

How do you beat a frontrunner? Ted Lasso submitted four episodes for directing and three of them earned nominations. The freshman Apple TV+ series is the odds on favorite across nearly all comedy categories. Yet, this category is prime for an upset. The last two times Veep had three directing nominees, they all lost. Granted, Modern Family prevailed in 2011 when it had three nominations in this category.

So who else is nominated? There are three other pilots in contention - B Positive, The Flight Attendant and Hacks. Past pilots that have won directing over the past decade include The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Glee. Mom is also in contention for an episode from its eighth and final season. So what stands the best chance to win Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series? Let’s dive into the nominees...

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Emmy Analysis: Can "Ted Lasso" beat itself to Outstanding Comedy Writing?

The Film Experience Team takes a look at the episode submissions for all the major Emmy categories.

By Nathaniel R

Oustanding Writing in a Comedy Series has paired with the Comedy Series winner for the past three consecutive years even though a different show won each time (Mrs Maisel, Fleabag, Schitt's Creek). This was true even when the winning show had multiple writing nominations so it should have (theoretically) been splitting its vote. This suggests that the adorable and brilliant frontrunner Ted Lasso is going to win with ease... but which episode? WAIT, not so fast. Not long at all before that, Master of None and Louie both took this prize twice beating out their year's Comedy series winner (Veep and Modern Family). In the not-so distant case of Master of None vs Veep, Veep had multiple nominated episodes both times, theoretically splitting its own vote. This suggests Ted Lasso could also lose. But to what?

So let’s take a look at the nominees... 

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Team Experience Emmy Reactions

Hope y'all aren't done talking about the Emmy nods yet. Abe, Cláudio, Juan Carlos, Chris and myself got together to share our reactions to Tuesday's Emmy nominations. From our disappointments about the snubs (sorry about Small Axe, Cláudio) to our individual joys (Carlos remains the world's biggest Handmaid's Tale fan) and our suggestions about how to improve the system (I explain why ranked ballots are the only way to go in the conversation).

Have a watch and share your own reactions, now that the dust has settled.

• Which snubs are still irritating you? 
• Which shows will you know be watching to see what the big deal is? 
• Who do you think will win the hot-hot-hot miniseries category?
• Who are you rooting for? 

Emmy Nominations Are Here!

By Abe Friedtanzer

Nominations for the 73rd Emmys have been announced, and while it was nice to see short clips of each of the program nominees, the gimmick of having father and daughter, Ron Cephas Jones and Jasmine Cephas Jones, announce together would have worked considerably better if they had been in the same place and not experiencing a delayed reaction to their joke setups. But let’s move on to the nominees, which are mostly good but sure to reveal painful snubs as we break it down by category. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that The Crown is the nominations leader with 24 bids, but it did tie with The Mandalorian, which added to its technical total with a few acting, directing, and writing bids.

It took me until I got into the details of the limited series/anthology categories to realize that Small Axe was almost entirely shut out, earning only a cinematography mention. I think that has more to do with its questionable TV format, though that didn’t stop Hamilton from gobbling up a horrifying seven acting slots. Another underperformer was Girls5eva, which managed exactly one nomination, for writing. It was also a sad day for Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, which didn’t score any of the major bids I and others thought it might. That presumed domination by a few series in the supporting categories absolutely happened, though there were a few positive and unexpected inclusions thrown in. Let’s take a closer look at the categories our Emmy team predicted (plus the guest races) and go from there...

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Emmy Watch: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

By Abe Friedtanzer

Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple in "Ted Lasso"

Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series may actually be the most competitive Emmy category this time. At the very least it's the one with the largest number of high-caliber candidates who deserve a spot. The list of returning possibilities is about as short as in any other category this year. Two-time winner Kate McKinnon (Saturday Night Live) is angling for her eighth consecutive bid. Cecily Strong (Saturday Night Live) was nominated last year, and Aidy Bryant (Saturday Night Live) is a previous honoree who could return again. Though it’s not technically for the same show but for the same role, Laurie Metcalf (The Conners) is a past nominee, and a three-time winner. There’s also Bette Midler (The Politician), who earned her show’s only major nomination last year as a guest and is now eligible here. Let’s go over the rest of the field…

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