Netflix leads Emmy pack

We take a look at the most surprising, intriguing and important nominations

SORTING through the hundreds of Emmy nominations that were announced last week feels like more work than binge-watching the whole of Gunsmoke. So we’ve distilled this year’s nods down to the nine most surprising, intriguing and important takeaways:

Netflix

Premium cable services have reigned over the Emmy’s for some time now. Case in point: HBO has earned the most nominations for 17 years in a row. Until now.

Netflix has been slowly inching its way to the top, and this year the streaming service finally surpassed HBO by earning 112 nominations to the latter’s 108.

It earned the victory on the strong showing of series like The Crown (13 nods),

Godless (12), Stranger Things (12) and Glow (10) – an impressive feat given the dominance of Game of Thrones.

Game of Thrones

HBO’s breakout fantasy series is back with all the vengeance of an angry Arya Stark. Game of Thrones is one of the most decorated shows in Emmy history, a trend that’s poised to continue. It earned the most nominations last week with 22, narrowly edging out the big-budget sci-fi show that the cable provider hopes will be its replacement, Westworld, which came away with 21 nods. The Handmaid’s Tale trailed closely behind with 20 chances to win a trophy.

Trevor Noah

The Daily Show host Trevor Noah and his team have been nominated for the best variety talk series category. Noah bagged his first gong last year in the best short form variety series category for his YouTube comedy special, The Daily Show: Between the Scenes, beating Behind the Voice, Epic Rap Battles of History,

Honest Trailers and The Star Wars Show. This year sees the late night talk show’s first nomination in the best variety talk series category with Noah as host. He will be up against US talk show greats like Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Britain’s James Corden.

Anthony Bourdain

After the celebrity chef-turned-writerturned-television personality took his life last month, CNN chose to release the final two episodes of his beloved travelogue show

Parts Unknown. The episodes were met with a mixture of praise and sorrow.

The Television Academy seemed similarly struck by Bourdain’s final season, nominating it for six Emmys, including one for best informational series or special.

John Legend

The stakes will be pretty high for the R&B star, who has two chances to EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony): 1) If he wins lead actor in limited series or TV movie for NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live in

Concert, or 2) If the show wins outstanding variety special, since he was a co-executive producer. (Added bonus: If Jesus Christ

Superstar wins, executive producers Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice could also EGOT.) He has some tough competition with Jeff Daniels from Hulu’s The Looming

Tower and Benedict Cumberbatch in Showtime’s Patrick Melrose – but given that the NBC production was live, voters might want to acknowledge the trickiness of that performance.

New comedy nominees

Since 2010, the only winners in the best comedy series category have been Modern

Family (2010 through 2014) and Veep (2015 through 2017). This year, Modern Family received no nominations for the first time ever, while Veep went on hiatus while Julia Louis-Dreyfus was undergoing treatment for breast cancer. So who will take the comedy crown? Newcomers such as The

Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Barry and GLOW are all poised to make an impact.

Sandra Oh

This spring, BBC America’s Killing Eve became the rare TV series to gain viewers every week as the buzz spread about this addictive drama about a cat and mouse game between a British intelligence officer (Sandra Oh) and terrifying assassin (Jodie Comer). Both performances got rave reviews, but Oh was a standout and last week became the first Asian woman to be Emmy-nominated for lead actress in a drama. Oh was nominated for supporting actress four times for her breakout role on

Grey’s Anatomy, but she’s overdue for a win.

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel

This Amazon comedy debuted in December and scooped up multiple Golden Globe nominations, with a win for best comedy series and best actress for Rachel Brosnahan, in her breakout role as a housewife-turned-stand-up comedian in the 1950s. Although the Globes and Emmys aren’t always on the same page, Emmy voters also loved the show, which got 14 nominations, including best comedy. In addition to Brosnahan’s lead actress nod, Tony Shalhoub, Alex Borstein and Jane Lynch were also nominated.

Queer Eye

The Netflix reboot of Bravo’s Queer Eye

for the Straight Guy became an immediate hit. So it’s no surprise that the show got an Emmy nod for outstanding structured reality programme – although a bit more mysterious that its stars were left off the list for best reality show host. – Washington Post. Additional reporting by IOL