When the Emmy Award nominations were announced this morning, Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams was just as surprised as you were to find out the results.
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But finally the Academy has stumbled across “The Americans” and its two splendid leads, handing a nomination to the series as well as to Matthew Rhys as best lead actor and Keri Russell as best lead actress (the first-ever nominations for both these veteran stars). TBS’ Samantha Bee didn’t translate her critical plaudits to a nomination.
Tracee Ellis Ross: With three open slots in comedy lead actress, it’s not a complete shocker that the Black-ish star earned a nod.
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.
Bruce Rosenblum, Television Academy president/CEO, saluted the industry for its relevance and diversity, calling this current era “the most spectacular run in its history with breakthrough creativity, emerging platforms and dynamic new opportunities for our industry’s storytellers”.
Lead nominations went to Cuba Gooding Jr.as Simpson, Courtney B. Vance as defense attorney Johnnie Cochran and Sarah Paulson as prosecutor Marcia Clark.
Several hotly tipped shows missed out on widely-expected nods, including The Good Wife, which was shut out of best show honours, and Netflix’s prison comedy drama Orange is the New Black which failed to pick up a single nomination.
(HBO via AP). In this image released by HBO, Lena Headey appears in a scene from “Game of Thrones”.
The 2016 Emmy nominations were announced this morning in Los Angeles.
FX’s hotly-tipped The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story scored the second highest tally with 22 nods.
The choices for outstanding drama series looked familiar with “Game of Thrones”, “Better Call Saul”, “Downton Abbey“, “Homeland”, “House of Cards” and “Mr. Robot” while fans were thrilled with this year’s inclusion of “The Americans”. I don’t mean “new” purely as first-year fare, like Mr. Robot and Master of None, but shows and people that had never been nominated before, like The Americans, Black-ish, Silicon Valley’s Thomas Middleditch, Veep’s Matt Walsh, The Affair’s Maura Tierney and Getting On’s Laurie Metcalf (Metcalf is also up in guest acting for The Big Bang Theory and Horace and Pete).
What did you think about the nominations for the Game of Thrones cast?
In contrast with this year’s Oscars, which became embroiled in controversy over the lack of nominations for people of color, Emmy nominations provided a wealth of recognition for minorities, particularly African Americans. “I owe my performance whatever it is to him”.
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The Emmy Awards will be presented September 18 at a ceremony hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and broadcast live on ABC.
