Final 2023 Emmy Predictions: Variety, Reality and Talk Series Categories Get Shaken Up; Game Shows Head to Primetime

Variety and Talk nominees will look different this year as the Television Academy made some big changes in categorization and definition this year, most notably moving perennial Talk Show winner over to Scripted Variety Series, a category hobbled by few submissions and that will ultimately end up with just three spots. On the flip side, Talk Series will have four.

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Reality Competition really holds close to the same nominees year to year with usually one newbie every few seasons that holds on but you can guarantee spots for previous winners like The Amazing Race, RuPaul’s Drag Race and The Voice and consistent nominees like Top Chef. Nailed It! will likely round out this group once again but we could see the return of Survivor (but not likely) or the new, buzzy show The Traitors.

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The Variety Special categories – Live and Pre-Recorded – are super competitive this year, especially the latter. Star tributes, concerts and standup shows are the always the nominees here and this year has enough to fill 10 spots including celebrations of television legends Carol Burnett and Norman Lear, Lizzo, Miley Cyrus and U2, and major comedian specials from John Mulaney, Alex Borstein, Hannah Gadsby, Marc Maron, Patton Oswalt and Wanda Sykes. Chris Rock’s special was a live broadcast from Netflix, who began to stretch their legs in live broadcasting this year, and is in the Variety Special – Live category. But, the last Carpool Karaoke special is destined to take a spot here as James Corden’s singing with the stars specials have been proven Emmy winners over the last decade.

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Game shows are now in Primetime where we’ll have five nominees in both Game Show and Game Show Host, regardless of network or syndication status as long as they officially air in primetime.

Emmy nominations will be announced Wednesday, July 12. The Creative Arts Emmy Awards will once again be presented over two consecutive nights – Saturday, September 9 and Sunday, September 10 – with an edited presentation of the ceremonies to be broadcast on FXX the following weekend.

The 75th Primetime Emmy Awards will take place on Monday, September 18, and air live on FOX at 8:00pm ET/ 5:00pm PT.

Here are my final 2023 Emmy predictions in the top Variety, Reality and Talk categories.

Outstanding Scripted Variety Series

• A Black Lady Sketch Show (HBO)
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
• Saturday Night Live (NBC)

Other contenders: History of the World, Part II (Hulu), Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy Central), Ziwe (Showtime)

Outstanding Talk Series

• The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (Comedy Central)
• Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC)
• The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS)
• The Problem with Jon Stewart (AppleTV+)

Other contenders: The Amber Ruffin Show, The Late Late Show with James Corden, RuPaul’s Drag Race: The Pit Stop with Bianca Del Rio

Outstanding Variety Special (Live)

• The Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show starring Rihanna (FOX)
• Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium
• 65^th Annual Grammy Awards
• 75^th Annual Tony Awards (CBS)
• The Oscars (ABC)

Other contenders: Apple Music Live: Ed Sheeran, Chris Stapleton @ Kentucky Rising, Chris Rock: Selective Outrage, Kendrick Lamar: Live from Paris The Big Steppers Tour

Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded)

• Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love (NBC)
• The Last, Last Late, Late Show Carpool Karaoke Special (CBS)
• John Mulaney: Baby J (Netflix)
• Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music & Laughter (ABC)
• The Problem with Jon Stewart: Election Wrap-Up Special (AppleTV+)

Other contenders: Alex Borstein: Corsets & Clown Suits, Beauty and the Beast: A 30^th Celebration, Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming with Dave Letterman, Celebrating 50 Years of Broadway’s Best (Great Performances), Hannah Gadsby: Something Special, Jon Stewart: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song: Joni Mitchell, Lizzo: Live in Concert, Marc Maron: From Bleak to Dark, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Presents: Jordan Klepper Fingers the Midterms – America Unfollows Democracy, Wanda Sykes: I’m an Entertainer

Outstanding Reality Competition Program

• The Amazing Race (CBS)
• Nailed It! (Netflix)
• RuPaul’s Drag Race (MTV)
• Top Chef (Bravo)
• The Voice (NBC)

Other contenders: The Masked Singer (NBC), Survivor (CBS), The Traitors (Peacock)

Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program

• Nicole Byer – Nailed It! (Netflix)
• Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness – Queer Eye (Netflix)
• RuPaul Charles – RuPaul’s Drag Race (MTV)
• Padma Lakshmi – Top Chef (Bravo)
• Alan Cumming – The Traitors (Peacock)

Other contenders: Ryan Seacrest – American Idol (ABC); Heidi Klum, Tim Gunn – Making the Cut (Prime Video); Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, Kevin O’Leary – Shark Tank (ABC), Carson Daly – The Voice (NBC)

Outstanding Game Show

• Family Feud (Syndicated)
• Jeopardy! (Syndicated)
• The Price is Right (CBS)
• That’s My Jam (NBC)
• Wheel of Fortune (Syndicated)

Other contenders: $100,000 Pyramid (ABC), Let’s Make a Deal (CBS), Password (NBC), Press Your Luck (CBS)

Outstanding Game Show Host

• Elizabeth Banks – Press Your Luck (ABC)
• Mayim Bialik – Jeopardy! (Syndicated)
• Wayne Brady – Let’s Make a Deal (CBS)
• Steve Harvey – Family Feud (Syndicated)
• Keke Palmer – Password (NBC)

Other contenders: Drew Carey – The Price is Right (CBS), Jimmy Fallon – That’s My Jam (NBC), Ken Jennings – Jeopardy! (Syndicated), Pat Sajak – Wheel of Fortune (Syndicated)

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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