Emmy Nominations: Biggest Shocks and Snubs plus Trivia!
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
The Emmys always bring us some exciting and some frustrating choices. Here are some of the biggest surprises of the morning (which I’ll be updating throughout the day).
Shocks
Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg are Emmy nominees for hosting Martha and Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party. Zach Galifianakas (Baskets) earns his first Emmy nomination for Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Baskets. He upsets Thomas Middleditch (Silicon Valley) and Hank Azaria (Brockmire).
The Emmys aren’t done with Modern Family just yet; the show earned its 8th consecutive nomination for Comedy Series (its won five). By comparison, Frasier was dropped from Comedy Series after its eighth season (it also won five times).
Three women from Saturday Night Live were nominated for Supporting Actress in a Comedy; Vanessa Bayer and Leslie Jones earn their first and last year’s winner Kate McKinnon joins them. Last season was Bayer’s final season.
Snubs
After breaking through last year, The Americans was left out in the cold war of Drama Series. House of Cards remained in office for another term. In a strange snub twist, Margo Martindale, who won the Guest Actress in a Drama Series for The Americans the last two years in a row, submitted herself in Supporting and was not nominated. Conversely, Allison Wright went Guest this year and was finally nominated.
Transparent, which has won Lead Actor in a Comedy and Directing for a Comedy two years running was very shockingly snubbed in Comedy Series this year.
Tom Bergeron misses out on a Host nomination for the first time since the category’s inception (he won once) and the his show, Dancing with the Stars, is also snubbed for the first time. Dear White People was snubbed entirely, most especially recent Oscar winner Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) in directing. Also in Comedy Directing, Master of None was snubbed there too, shockingly. The season opener seemed like directing catnip.
Emmy winners Gillian Anderson and Cloris Leachman (the current Emmy acting champ) both lost out on Guest Actress in a Drama Series nominations. Despite her show netting 18 nominations and this being a huge comeback for her (including a SAG nom), Winona Ryder misses out on a Supporting Actress in a Drama Series nomination while her co-star, teen Millie Bobby Brown gets in.
Michael McKean (Better Call Saul) was heavily predicted to get in for his best season yet but did not. Jill Soloway, the Directing for a Comedy Series winner for the last two years, missed out this year on her submission of her new series, I Love Dick.
BoJack Horseman was snubbed in Animated Series once again, but that category is historically slow to reward. Bob’s Burgers didn’t make it in until season 3, Archer not until season 5. This is the first year the Kennedy Center Honors were snubbed in Variety Special (which weirdly only had four nominees) since 2006. The show has won this category seven times, including a five-year streak from 2009-2013.
Trivia
Netflix is the first network, streaming or otherwise, to get three shows in Drama Series (The Crown, House of Cards, Stranger Things) since NBC in 2001 (E.R., Law & Order, The West Wing).
Speaking of NBC, the network’s breakthrough show This Is Us becomes the first basic network show to earn a Drama Series nomination since The Good Wife in 2011.
Individuals with multiple nominations this year: Donald Glover (3), Liev Schrieber (3), Ann Dowd (2), Riz Ahmed (2), Matthew Rhys (2).
Six of seven of the major Drama races (Series, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Guest Actress) enter this year’s Emmys without the defending champ in tow.
Ava DuVernay’s 13TH becomes the 4th documentary to score Oscar and Emmy nods.
Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) is the first black actor to be nominated for Lead Actor in a Drama Series since 2001.
Most Acting nominations:
Saturday Night Live – 9
This Is Us – 7
Feud – 6
Big Little Lies – 5
Veep – 5
The Handmaid’s Tale – 4
Westworld – 4
The Night Of – 4
Nomination Totals
22
Saturday Night Live
Westworld
18
FEUD: Bette And Joan
Stranger Things
17
Veep
16
Big Little Lies
Fargo
13
The Crown
The Handmaid’s Tale
The Night Of
11
This Is Us
10
Genius
Planet Earth II
Silicon Valley
9
Better Call Saul
8
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
Master Of None
13th
The Voice
7
Dancing With The Stars
Hairspray Live!
RuPaul’s Drag Race
Transparent
6
Atlanta
Born This Way
13 Jul 2017 – 02:03:08
House Of Cards
O.J.: Made In America
The Oscars
Super Bowl LI Halftime Show Starring Lady Gaga
5
Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown
The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years
Project Runway
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
4
American Horror Story: Roanoke
The Americans
black-ish
Drunk History
Full Frontal With Samantha Bee Presents Not The White House Correspondents’ Dinner
Girls
Grace And Frankie
Penny Dreadful
Sherlock: The Lying Detective (Masterpiece)
70th Annual Tony Awards
The Wizard Of Lies
3
The Amazing Race
The Big Bang Theory
Deadliest Catch
Gotham
Homeland
Jimmy Kimmel Live
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
The Man In The High Castle
Modern Family
Mozart In The Jungle
Mr. Robot
Portlandia
So You Think You Can Dance
Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night Democracy’s Series Finale: Who’s Going To Clean Up This Sh*t?
Survivor
Vikings
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.
- 2025 Oscar Predictions: BEST ACTRESS (November) - November 20, 2024
- ‘Sugarcane,’ ‘Soundtrack to A Coup d’Etat’ Lead 40th IDA Documentary Awards Nominations - November 20, 2024
- AwardsWatch Partners with Vision Media to Revolutionize the Awards Season Experience - November 20, 2024
2025 Oscar Predictions: BEST ACTRESS (November) 
‘Sugarcane,’ ‘Soundtrack to A Coup d’Etat’ Lead 40th IDA Documentary Awards Nominations 
AwardsWatch Partners with Vision Media to Revolutionize the Awards Season Experience 
Interview: ‘The Substance’ Special Makeup Effects Designer Pierre-Olivier Persin on Transforming Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley into a Funhouse of Horror and Using 4,000 Gallons of Blood