Emmy Noms: ‘Game of Thrones’ breaks record; ‘Schitt’s Creek’ breaks in

Erik Anderson July 16, 2019

Game of Thrones (HBO)
Schitt’s Creek (PopTV)

The nominations for the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards were announced this morning and the big news should come as no surprise; the final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones broke the all-time record for most nominations for a Drama Series in a single season with a village-scorching 32. The previous record holder was NYPD with 27 over 20 year ago. The show managed to get all three of its directing submissions in and all four of its supporting actresses – Gwendoline Christie, Lena Headey, Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams – plus three in supporting actor (3-time winner Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Alfie Allen) and Carice van Houten in Guest Actress to help get it to that record-breaking number. HBO also took back the crown from Netflix as the most-nominated network with 137 to the streamer’s 117.

Two other high-profile Emmy winners in their final seasons didn’t fare quite as well. HBO’s Veep, the comedy champ before taking a season off last year, came in with just nine nominations and missed out on a directing nod and pulled in just four acting nominations, all for previous winners or nominees. CBS’s The Big Bang Theory went out with a whimper with just three mentions, including the forced nomination for directing imposed by the television academy two years ago that required one multi-camera comedy be included.

Freshman shows had a stellar morning with Netflix’s Russian Doll blowing up in Comedy Series plus two nominations for its writing for a field-best 13 for a new comedy. FX’s Pose came in with six including Drama Series and Lead Actor for Billy Porter and HBO’s Succession with 5, including Drama Series, directing and writing. Netflix’s Bodyguard just managed two nominations but one of them was the big one, Drama Series.

Not to be outdone by the new class, sophomore seasons saw a huge bump from their first, most of all to last year’s winner The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. It earned a whopping 20 nominations this year (the second most of all time after 30 Rock‘s 22 in 2009), adding Marin Hinkle in supporting actress and two guest actors – Rufus Sewell and Luke Kirby to its list. Another big winner from last year, Barry, was just behind with 17 nominations including a major infusion of acting nominations including Stephen Root and Anthony Carrigan joining Henry Winkler in supporting actor and Sarah Goldberg in supporting actress. Amazon’s Fleabag and BBC America’s Killing Eve, both by creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge enjoyed big second season bumps as well, with Fiona Shaw earning acting nominations for both shows and Jodie Comer joining Sandra Oh (another double acting nominee this year) in lead actress for a drama series.

Three episodes from the second season of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale aired outside of the 70th Emmys eligibility period and while it was not eligible for dramatic series consideration in the 71st Emmys competition, those three extra episodes from 2018 grabbed a massive 11 nominations, including writing and directing and guest acting.

The big shock of the morning was the embracing of PopTV’s Schitt’s Creek. The show, in its 5th season, grabbed nominations for Comedy Series, Lead Actor (Eugene Levy), lead actress (Catherine O’Hara) and Contemporary Costumes. Many thought the show would break through last year after landing on Netflix but it was a huge push this year by the netlet, as well as Emmy events, that brought the cult series to the main stage.

Limited Series’ really had a stellar morning with hits like HBO’s Chernobyl (19 noms), FX’s Fosse/Verdon (17), Netflix’s When They See Us (16) and Showtime’s Escape at Dannemora all grabbing top mentions in writing and directing and numerous acting nods. When They See Us alone found places for seven of its actors to earn nominations.

The 71st Primetime Emmy Awards will be held on September 22nd on FOX with the Creative Arts Emmys taking place the weekend before in a two-night ceremony.

Here are the nominations:

Drama Series