Last year, “The White Lotus” dominated the Emmy Awards, earning 20 nominations (second only to “Succession’s” 25) and winning an Emmy-leading 10 of those categories, four more than finalists “Euphoria” and ” Squid”. Game.” But will it be as easy for Mike White’s series to be as unstoppable this year?
You can’t rule it out, but it will be difficult. As has been well documented, the Television Academy has moved “The White Lotus” from the limited series categories where it competed last year to the drama series categories this year. That move marked a change of heart on the part of the Academy, which in 2022 had classified “The White Lotus” as a limited series knowing full well that it was planning a second season that technically violated the Emmys’ rulebook definition of a limited series. limited series as a show “that tells a complete, non-recurring story…with no ongoing storyline and/or major characters in later seasons.”
It had been established that Jennifer Coolidge would return for season 2, but perhaps because everyone wants to see Coolidge in everything, the Academy looked the other way and said “The White Lotus” could still be a limited series, until suddenly it decided that he couldn’t.
Unfortunately for “The White Lotus,” Emmy history suggests that the move from limited series to dramatic series is problematic. Check out the last high-profile show that made a similar change, “Big Little Lies.”
The show was originally commissioned as a standalone miniseries, but after a successful first season in 2017, HBO was coy about the idea of a second season until the show garnered 16 nominations and won eight Emmys, including Outstanding Limited Series, Outstanding Series Lead Actress in a Limited Series (Nicole Kidman) and Supporting Awards for Alexander Skarsgard and Laura Dern.
Not long after those wins, HBO officially renewed “BLL,” immediately making the show an Emmy-ready drama series. The second season still caught the attention of voters, but its 16 nominations were down to five and its wins dropped from eight to zero (even though it added Meryl Streep to the cast).
The most notable show to make the switch in the last 20 years was “Downton Abbey,” and it even had some issues with the transition. Its first season (or “series one”, in British TV lingo) strangely qualified for the Emmys as a limited series in 2011, despite the fact that its second season was already in the works (and was set to air in the UK on same day as the Emmy Awards Ceremony). As a limited series, it would be nominated for 11 Emmy Awards, winning six of them, including Outstanding Miniseries and an acting award for Maggie Smith.
The next five seasons were placed, correctly, in the Outstanding Drama Series category, where the show did well, averaging almost 12 nominations per year. But against stronger and deeper competition in the drama categories, its wins dropped to an average of two per year, a third of what it had earned as a miniseries.
In part, it’s harder to thrive in the drama category than in limited series because there’s so much more competition: Last year, for example, there were 171 eligible drama series to just 61 eligible limited series, and 1,253 eligible drama series artists. against 573 limited series.
Plus, in the drama categories, you’re up against a lot of shows and artists who have been racking up nominations in the categories for years, and whose past nominations give them a sort of hometown advantage with Emmy voters. As a limited series, you arrive fresh and none of your competitors have the advantage of having been there before.
That does not mean that “El Loto Blanco” is going to have problems this year. Based on how well he did at the guild awards earlier this year, he may just hold his own. After all, it won ACE Eddie Awards, ASCAP Awards, Producers Guild Awards, Writers Guild Awards, and Society of Composers and Lyricists Awards, and was nominated by half a dozen other groups in categories including limited series, comedy, dramatic series, one-hour series and long-form aired.
Still, that final season of “Succession” is a tough foe, a true 800-pound gorilla that won’t go down easily. And if that doesn’t win, “The Last of Us” and the final season of “Better Call Saul” (which has never won and might have a bit of sentiment on his side) aren’t pushovers either.
For now, here’s what we know: The limited-series category can say a fond farewell to “The White Lotus” as it packs up and moves to a tougher neighborhood.
A version of this story first appeared in the Limited series/movies issue from TheWrap Awards Magazine. Read more from that number here.
