CHAT WITH KELLY
USA TODAY’s Kelly Lawler chats with readers Mondays at 2 p.m. ET at facebook.com/ USATODAY. Read edited excerpts below, email questions to klawler@usatoday.com or tweet them to @klawls and visit her live online.
Q Had Game of Thrones been eligible for the Emmys this year, do you think it would have taken the crown for best drama series? What will happen next year when Game of Thrones is back in the race?
A I think there’s a strong possibility for sure. Although I found the seventh season of Thrones to be on the weaker side, that may not matter: The series won its first drama-series Emmy for its fifth season, which was the weakest of the bunch. The Emmys often suffers from inertia, which is probably what gave Julia Louis-Dreyfus her sixth consecutive win for Veep and that series its third win for best comedy. It’s likely Thrones would have repeated, but it certainly would have had some tough competition in the drama category.
Q I loved Feud: Bette and Joan this year. Any reason why you think it got shut out in the acting categories?
A The limited-series categories were really competitive this year. In the best-actress race you had four Oscar winners (Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange) competing. I think the TV Academy was right in honoring Big Little Lies for its breadth of acting, and it clearly had a lot of support since it won all three acting categories in which it was nominated.
Q Is streaming taking over after Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale won for best drama series?
A Hulu did become the first streaming series to win the best-drama prize. In last week’s ceremony, Hulu won five awards (all for Handmaid’s), Netflix won four and Amazon didn’t win any. But HBO walked away with 10 and NBC six. Streaming may be a formidable force, but it’s not everything. And Hulu will have to follow up Handmaid’s with other strong dramas if it hopes to rival networks such as HBO.