Parts of this story first appeared in recent Emmy magazines from TheWrap, Until the end: Comedy Y Until the end: Drama.
In the last two Emmy magazines this season, TheWrap featured a pair of “Emmy Hot Lists”: one for comedy, variety and reality shows and one for dramas and limited series. But as voting enters its final three days, can we take a moment to say hello to some of the shows that didn’t make the hot lists or the nominees list?
The year on TV wouldn’t have been the same without these shows, though you wouldn’t know if you just had to go by the Television Academy voter picks. So maybe those voters deserve their own Cold List for some of the decisions they made.
Sentimentality
During its first five seasons, the NBC series “This Is Us” brought tears to our eyes and returned broadcast networks to the top drama categories, earning four Outstanding Drama Series nominations and 24 acting nominations, including five for Sterling K. Brown, three for Milo Ventimiglia and one for Mandy Moore. Its sixth and final season, which—spoiler alert—included the harrowing death of Moore’s character, was very well received by audiences and critics alike, but was strangely and almost completely ignored by voters, who steadfastly refused to get sentimental. . about the ending of a historical network drama. (They did the same thing on the comedy side with “black-ish.”)
And no, it was no great consolation that the only nomination she got, for the original song “Day of the Wedding,” was shared by songwriter Siddhartha Khosia and songwriter Taylor Goldsmith, who happens to be Moore’s husband.
Actors of “Saturday Night Live”
The show that has long dominated the supporting and guest acting categories hit a snag this year, dropping from 11 acting nominations last year to just three this year. Kate McKinnon and Bowen Yang received nominations, but voters passed over 19 cast members (including previous nominees Kenan Thompson, Cecily Strong and Aidy Bryant) and eight of the nine hosts on the ballot: Jerrod Carmichael entered, but Kieran Culkin , Jason Sudeikis, Billie Eilish and Kim Kardashian, among others, did not.
“yellow stone”
The narrative was irresistible: After three highly rated seasons, Taylor Sheridan’s western family drama starring Kevin Costner was finally going to register with Emmy voters! And Kelly Reilly was going to be recognized for her brilliant performance! The problem was that members of the Television Academy tend to decide early in a show’s run if it’s an Emmy show, and if they decide it’s not, persuading them otherwise requires much more than a compelling narrative. So “Yellowstone” was completely excluded.
Other exclusions
“Yellowstone” may have been the biggest, but it wasn’t the only drama worthy of being completely overlooked. In the same boat: “The Chair,” “The Good Fight,” “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey,” “Evil,” “Outer Range” and “Bel-Air” (whose chances certainly didn’t improve when Will Smith, the star of the comedy series on which the show was based, got a happy slap at the Oscars).
“Atlanta”
The third season of Donald Glover’s comedy series was great, but four came length years after Season 2. And the show that received six nominations for its first season (including Outstanding Comedy Series) and 16 for its second season (ditto) had to make do with three downright insulting for Season 3: one for Glover , one for directing and one for cinematography.
Not ready for prime time?
Other series weren’t completely ignored by voters, but all of their nominations came in the below-the-line categories given out at the Creative Arts Emmys rather than the Primetime Emmy telecast. On the drama side, they included last year’s Outstanding Drama Series nominee “Bridgerton,” the cult favorite “Midnight Mass,” the limited series “Gaslit,” “1883” and “The First Lady” and the drama series ” Pachinko” and “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.” In comedy, the list included former Best Comedy Series nominees “black-ish,” “Cobra Kai,” “Emily in Paris” and “Russian Doll,” as well as “Schmigadoon,” “Hawkeye” and “The Righteous.” Gemstones”.
Wonderful
Last year, Marvel Studios had a breakthrough at the Emmys, with “WandaVision” nominated for Best Limited Series and also garnered three acting, one directing and three writing nominations among its 23 nominations. But with that show out of the running this year, Marvel’s slate of “Loki,” “Moon Knight” and “Hawkeye” combined for just 16 nominations, all of which came in areas below the line. The studio’s first animated series alone, “What If…”, garnered two nominations, for voice actors Jeffrey Wright and the late Chadwick Boseman.
Short Form Original Content
The Emmys have been toying with the short-form categories in recent years, but it hasn’t helped stem a distressing decline from original stories to a series of spinoffs of existing shows. In addition to “I Think You Should Go With Tim Robinson” and “The Randy Rainbow Show,” the nominees in the two short-form categories are made up entirely of spin-off content from James Corden, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee and Trevor . Noah’s late night shows, plus “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” “Top Chef,” and “SNL.”
Read more of the Until the end: comedy edition hereand the Down to the Wire: Drama problem here.