Emmy nominations: ‘Succession,’ ‘The Last of Us,’ ‘The White Lotus’ and ‘Ted Lasso’ dominate
The 2023 Primetime Emmy Award nominations were announced on Wednesday morning, July 12, honoring the best television that aired or streamed from June 2022 through May 2023. So who made the cut? Check out the complete list of nominations here.
Emmy nominee Yvette Nicole Brown joins to announce the nominations and starts with Best Talk Series nominations for Trevor Noah, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, and Jon Stewart, which matches Gold Derby predictions. This category was revised to exclude “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver,” which now competes in the Variety Scripted contest.
Already a couple of surprises for Best Movie/Limited Actress with Dominique Fishback (“Swarm”) and Kathryn Hahn (“Tiny Beautiful Things”). Among the men, Kumail Nanjiani takes us by surprise with his bid for “Welcome to Chippendales.” And the Best Limited Series nominees include surprise contender “Obi-Wan Kenobi” — no “Black Bird” or “A Small Light.”
The drama races include few major shocks in the lead acting races. Best Drama Series also went eight-for-eight according to Gold Derby’s predictions. Among the comedies, though, it’s a surprise to see Martin Short nominated for “Only Murders in the Building” but not Steve Martin. And “Jury Duty” shocks with its nomination for Best Comedy Series, knocking out strong possible contender “Poker Face,” though Natasha Lyonne did make the lead acting lineup.
In the end, “Succession” led the nominations with 27 bids including Best Drama Series, followed by 24 nominations for “The Last of Us” and 23 bids for “The White Lotus.” So it was a pretty good morning for HBO. It was also a good morning for “Ted Lasso,” which managed to improve on its first two seasons by receiving 21 nominations including Best Comedy. For its first two years it received 20 nominations each, bringing its all-time total to 61 bids in just three seasons. And two shows are tied for the lead among limited series: “Beef” and “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer” story with 13 each.
Last year’s Emmy nominations were dominated by three programs. “Succession,” with 25 bids, was the top drama and the top program overall. It also set a record for the most acting nominations for a program in a single year. It was followed closely by the leading comedy “Ted Lasso” with 20 noms and top limited series “The White Lotus” also with 20 noms. Those totals turned out to be telling. “Succession” ultimately won Best Drama Series for the second time, “Ted Lasso” won Best Comedy Series for the second time, and “The White Lotus” came away with Best Limited Series. “Lotus” returned for a second season with a continuing character, so it’s competing in drama categories in 2023.
Recent years at the Emmys have demonstrated overwhelming support for a select few programs in this era of peak TV. Perhaps in response to those past nomination sweeps, the television academy changed their nomination round voting rules. Where once academy members were allowed to check off as many names as they wanted in each race, this year they were limited to voting for the number of nominees who would ultimately wind up in the category. The question was whether that would level the playing field for lower-profile shows or further concentrate support around a handful of favorites. What do you think of the results?