Audra McDonald brought her acclaimed portrayal of Billie Holiday from Lanie Robertson’s musical play Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill to HBO in March.
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(Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images).
The nods for the series also included best supporting actor and actress nominations for last year’s victor Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Lena Headley, Emilia Clarke and Maisie Williams and nods for writers David Benioff and DB Weiss. Although the Emmys can’t claim the steroid effect that an Oscar can have on a film’s box-office performance, the premiere TV award draws attention to shows trying to stand out in a packed media world. You wouldn’t know it from looking at the Emmy nominations list, though.
Netflix’s third-place ranking in nominations was led by 13 nominations for political drama “House of Cards” and six each for documentary “What Happened, Miss Simone?” and true-crime show “Making A Murderer”.
Internet television network Netflix (NFLX) scored 54 Emmy Award nominations on Thursday, an increase of 59% from last year’s tally.
Broadcast and cable are far from irrelevant.
Outstanding lead actor in a comedy series nominations are: Anthony Anderson, Blackish; Aziz Ansari, Master of None, William H. Macy, Shameless; Thomas Middleditch, Silicon Valley; Will Forte, Last Man on Earth; and Jeffery Tambor, Transparent. He helped announce the awards live and read his show’s name with relish.
“I’m on cloud nine right now”, Anderson said afterward. “When hope becomes reality, that’s what it is. I was just a 9-year-old kid growing up in Compton, California, with a dream and this is the dream that I had”. Alas, it didn’t. This marks the first time since 2000 that an incarnation of The Daily Show has not been nominated, and this also means we’ll get a non-Daily Show, non-Colbert victor for the first time since, ironically, David Letterman’s Late Show won in 2002. Sarah Paulson is up for wins for both “American Horror Story: Hotel” and “The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”.
Britons Idris Elba, Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston will compete for best lead actor in a limited series or movie, while James Corden’s Late, Late Show is nominated for outstanding talk series.
I am so happy to be part of this cast and honored to be nominated with such an outstanding group of people and many of my friends. Two-time victor Julianna Margulies, who was snubbed previous year, is MIA, as is Christine Baranski, who was until now the only Good Wifeactor to have been nominated every season.
The acknowledgements for Game of Thrones included best supporting actor and actress nominations for last year’s victor Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Lena Headley, Emilia Clarke and Maisie Williams and nods for writers David Benioff and DB Weiss.
Downton Abbey stars: Unlike The Good Wife, fellow departing series Downton Abbey retained its spot in the drama series race, but its stars – mainstays in the acting races for years (ahem, Jim Carter) – did not fare as well. (Speaking of the triumphs of black women, how ’bout that directing nod for Queen Bey for Lemonade?) After championing the low-rated The Americans for so long, FX must be gratified that the show is finally up for the trophies it has long deserved, including those for Best Drama, actress Keri Russell, and actor Matthew Rhys.
Outstanding lead actress in a comedy series are: Tracee Ellis Ross, Blackish; Laurie Metcalf, Getting On, Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie; Amy Schumer; Inside Amy Schumer; Ellie Kemper, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt; and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep.
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The 68th prime-time Emmy show will be broadcast live on ABC from 8 to 11 p.m. on September 18.
