Writers Guild of America (WGA) Television Nominations: Stranger Things, Westworld, Atlanta Among Freshman Shows

Erik Anderson December 5, 2016

Stranger Things, Westworld and Atlanta earn their first WGA nominations — **Stranger Things**, **Westworld** and **Atlanta** earn their first WGA nominations

[divider style=”solid” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]

The Writers Guild of AmericaEast and West has chosen its nominations for the best television writing for 2016, including a host of freshman shows. Stranger Things, Westworld and Atlanta sit alongside previous nominees and winners like The Americans, Game of Thrones, Transparent, and Veep. The trio also turned up in the New Series category along with This Is Us and Better Things.

Moving to the Episodic nominations and things get interesting. In Drama, Better Call Saul grabs half of the nods here, three of six and making it the nomination leader of the day (four), leaving Game of Thrones, This Is Us and Shameless the remaining nominations. That meant zero nominations for Drama Series contenders The Americans, Westworld and Stranger Things. Comedy saw Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt grab two of the six available nominations, with One Mississippi, Son of Zorn, Speechless, and Atlanta taking the rest. Nothing for Comedy Series nominees Silicon Valley, Transparent or Veep.

In the Long Form categories American Crime, Confirmation, 11.22.63, and American Crime Story: The People v O.J. Simpson were among the nominees.

Here are the nominees:

DRAMA SERIES

– The Americans, Written by Peter Ackerman, Tanya Barfield, Joshua Brand, Joel Fields, Stephen Schiff, Joe Weisberg, Tracey Scott Wilson; FX
– Better Call Saul, Written by Ann Cherkis, Vince Gilligan, Jonathan Glatzer, Peter Gould, Gennifer Hutchison, Heather Marion, Thomas Schnauz, Gordon Smith; AMC
– Game of Thrones, Written by David Benioff, Bryan Cogman, Dave Hill, D.B. Weiss; HBO
– Stranger Things, Written by Paul Dichter, Justin Doble, The Duffer Brothers, Jessica Mecklenburg, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Alison Tatlock; Netflix
– Westworld, Written by Ed Brubaker, Bridget Carpenter; Dan Dietz, Halley Gross; Lisa Joy; Katherine Lingenfelter, Dominic Mitchell, Jonathan Nolan, Roberto Patino, Daniel T. Thomsen, Charles Yu; HBO

COMEDY SERIES

– Atlanta, Written by Donald Glover, Stephen Glover, Stefani Robinson, Paul Simms; FX
– Silicon Valley, Written by Megan Amram, Alec Berg, Donick Cary, Adam Countee, Jonathan Dotan, Mike Judge, Carrie Kemper, John Levenstein, Dan Lyons, Carson Mell, Dan O’Keefe, Clay Tarver, Ron Weiner; HBO
– Transparent, Written by Arabella Anderson, Bridget Bedard, Micah Fitzerman-Blue, Noah Harpster, Jessi Klein, Stephanie Kornick, Ethan Kuperberg, Ali Liebegott, Our Lady J, Faith Soloway, Jill Soloway; Amazon Studios
– Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Written by Emily Altman, Robert Carlock, Azie Mira Dungey, Tina Fey, Lauren Gurganous, Sam Means, Dylan Morgan, Marlena Rodriguez, Dan Rubin, Meredith Scardino, Josh Siegal, Allison Silverman, Leila Strachan; Netflix
– Veep, Written by Rachel Axler, Sean Gray, Alex Gregory, Peter Huyck, Eric Kenward, Billy Kimball, Steve Koren, David Mandel, Jim Margolis, Lew Morton, Georgia Pritchett, Will Smith, Alexis Wilkinson; HBO

NEW SERIES

– Atlanta, Written by Donald Glover, Stephen Glover, Stefani Robinson, Paul Simms; FX
– Better Things, Written by Pamela Adlon, Louis C.K., Cindy Chupack, Gina Fattore; FX
– Stranger Things, Written by Paul Dichter, Justin Doble, The Duffer Brothers, Jessica Mecklenburg, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Alison Tatlock; Netflix
– This Is Us, Written by Isaac Aptaker, Elizabeth Berger, Bekah Brunstetter, Dan Fogelman, Vera Herbert, Joe Lawson, Kay Oyegun, Aurin Squire, K.J. Steinberg, Donald Todd; NBC
– Westworld, Written by Ed Brubaker, Bridget Carpenter, Dan Dietz, Halley Gross, Lisa Joy, Katherine Lingenfelter, Dominic Mitchell, Jonathan Nolan, Roberto Patino, Daniel T. Thomsen, Charles Yu; HBO

LONG FORM ORIGINAL

– American Crime, Written by Julie Hébert, Sonay Hoffman, Keith Huff, Stacy A. Littlejohn, Kirk A. Moore, Davy Perez, Diana Son; ABC
– Confirmation, Written by Susannah Grant; HBO
– Harley and the Davidsons, Written by Seth Fisher, Nick Schenk, Evan Wright; Discovery Channel
– Surviving Compton: Dre, Suge & Michel’le, Written by Dianne Houston; Lifetime

LONG FORM ADAPTED

– 11.22.63, Written by Bridget Carpenter, Brigitte Hales, Joe Henderson, Brian Nelson, Quinton Peeples, Based on the novel by Stephen King; Hulu
– American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson, Written by Scott Alexander, Joe Robert Cole, D.V. DeVincentis, Maya Forbes, Larry Karaszewski, Wally Wolodarsky, Based on the book The Run of His Life by Jeffrey Toobin; FX
– Madoff, Written by Ben Robbins, Inspired by the Book The Madoff Chronicles: Inside the Secret World of Bernie and Ruth by Brian Ross; ABC
– The Night Of, Written by Richard Price, Steve Zaillian, Based on the BBC Series Criminal Justice Created by Peter Moffat; HBO
– Roots, Written by Lawrence Konner, Alison McDonald, Charles Murray, Mark Rosenthal, Based upon the Book by Alex Haley; History Channel

SHORT FORM NEW MEDIA – ORIGINAL

– “Episode 101” (Now We’re Talking), Written by Tug Coker, Tommy Dewey; go90.com
– “Escape the Room” (Life Ends at 30), Written by Michael Field; vimeo.com
– “Itsy Bitsy Spider” Episode 1 (Thug Passion), Written by Motrya Tomycz; vimeo.com
– “The Party” (The Commute), Written by Linsey Stewart & Dane Clark; youtube.com

SHORT FORM NEW MEDIA – ADAPTED

– “Passage” Part 4 (Fear the Walking Dead), Written by Lauren Signorino & Mike Zunic; amc.com
– “Under Siege” (The Strain), Written by Bradley Thompson & David Weddle, Based on the novels by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan; fxnetworks.com

ANIMATION

– “Barthood” (The Simpsons), Written by Dan Greaney; Fox
– “First Day of Rule” (Elena of Avalor), Written by Craig Gerber; Disney Channel
– “Fish Out of Water” (BoJack Horseman), Written by Elijah Aron & Jordan Young; Netflix
– “A Princess on Lothal” (Star Wars Rebels), Written by Steven Melching; Disney XD
– “Stop the Presses” (BoJack Horseman), Written by Joe Lawson; Netflix

EPISODIC DRAMA

– “Gloves Off” (Better Call Saul), Written by Gordon Smith; AMC
– “I Am a Storm” (Shameless), Written by Sheila Callaghan; Showtime
– “Klick” (Better Call Saul), Written by Heather Marion & Vince Gilligan; AMC
– “Switch” (Better Call Saul), Written by Thomas Schnauz; AMC
– “The Trip” (This Is Us), Written by Vera Herbert; NBC
– “The Winds of Winter” (Game of Thrones), Written for Television by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss; HBO

EPISODIC COMEDY

– “Kimmy Finds Her Mom!” (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Written by Tina Fey & Sam Means; Netflix
– “Kimmy Goes on a Playdate!” (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Written by Robert Carlock; Netflix
– “Pilot” (One Mississippi), Written by Diablo Cody & Tig Notaro; Amazon Studios
– “R-A-Y-C-Ray-Cation” (Speechless), Written by Carrie Rosen & Seth Kurland; ABC
– “Streets on Lock” (Atlanta), Written by Stephen Glover; FX
– “A Taste of Zephyria” (Son of Zorn), Written by Dan Mintz; Fox

Author
Recent Posts

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.