00:00I'm Tiffany Taylor for The Hollywood Reporter, and the Emmy nominations voting window is
00:04right around the corner.
00:05It opens June 10th, so today THR's awards columnist Scott Feinberg is sitting down with
00:09me to talk all things Emmys.
00:11So Scott, thank you so much for being here.
00:13Thanks for having me.
00:14You said this year could be the year of the comeback kid, where performers who've previously
00:17been overlooked may finally get nominated this year.
00:20So why is that?
00:21I think the thing that happens at the Emmys, because there's so much good TV out there
00:25right now in the era of peak TV, is that once they have moved on from you, they don't
00:29often go back to you.
00:31So if you have been nominated in the past, but then you weren't nominated for let's
00:34say season two, or if you were never nominated for season one, usually that's it.
00:39There are always exceptions, but they just move on to whatever's the exciting new show.
00:43This year, because there are so many shows from last year that have either ended, like
00:47The Americans, or that had a year off, like Handmaid's Tale, Stranger Things, The Crown,
00:54there are many openings in the acting categories as well.
00:56So if you look at a category like Best Actress in a Drama Series, five of last year's six
01:01nominees are not eligible.
01:03So the question is, are there enough new, exciting rookie shows to claim all of those
01:08slots, or are we going to see a revisitation of some of the people who had been overlooked
01:12in the past?
01:13Who are some actresses we could see in that Best Drama Actress category break through?
01:17Well, so let's look at an example like Christine Baranski for The Good Fight.
01:21She was someone who on The Good Wife, the show that this was spun off from, was not
01:26nominated for the show's first two seasons on CBS All Access because a lot of people didn't
01:32even know where to find CBS All Access.
01:34This year, she is again in the running.
01:37This is a character that she was nominated six times for playing on The Good Wife, but
01:41again, not for the first two seasons of The Good Fight.
01:43So what's changed?
01:45The profile of CBS All Access was really raised by Jordan Peele's show that went on there,
01:50The Twilight Zone, the reboot.
01:51I think a lot of people found that.
01:53I think she realized that she has to do a little bit more out here in L.A. where a lot of the
01:56voters are and where a lot of the entertainment press is.
02:00So she came out here and sort of beat the pavement a little more than she has in the past.
02:03I think she gets in for the first time.
02:06Jodie Comer from Killing Eve was not nominated last season, the first season of Killing Eve.
02:12However, for the second season, she's already beaten her co-star Sandra Oh, who's the only
02:16returning contender from last year that was nominated last year, will be nominated again.
02:21She beat Sandra Oh at the BAFTA TV award.
02:24Nice and clean, just like you taught me.
02:28It's hard to imagine her not also now getting her first nom, having not been nominated for
02:33a prior season on that show.
02:34So there are many others we could go through, probably Laura Linney for Ozark.
02:38I love you.
02:41And maybe even Mandy Moore for the third season now of This Is Us.
02:45Let's go home.
02:46So that's a category where there are a lot of vacancies that have to be filled by somebody.
02:50And it looks like a high profile returning nominee who's worthy of it could well claim
02:56several of those.
02:57What about the lead actress in a comedy category?
02:59So you have all six of last year's nominees in that category returning, plus the return
03:05of Veep's Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who's won for every season of that show, now probably get
03:09a win for the final season.
03:10If I ever needed a miracle, it's right now.
03:15So in this case, it's a matter of not somebody claiming an open spot.
03:20But could somebody who was overlooked in the past have grown their profile enough to box
03:24out someone who was nominated in the past?
03:26And I think in the case of Alison Brie from GLOW on Netflix, I think she could get in.
03:32The first season of that show was nominated for Best Comedy Series and had a total of
03:3610 nominations, including a fellow actress, Betty Gilpin on the show, in the supporting
03:41category.
03:42But Alison Brie was overlooked.
03:43And people were saying, is this because voters have some issue with her?
03:46You know, they looked at the fact that she had not been nominated for Mad Men or Community
03:50either.
03:51But the reality was that's a jam-packed category.
03:53She was up for a rookie show.
03:55Only one other rookie did get nominated, Rachel Brosnahan for Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, who ended
03:59up winning.
04:01So I think there's an excellent chance that Alison Brie will bust her way into a category
04:05that is still very crowded.
04:07Who else can we see possibly break through in the other performance categories?
04:10Well, we were talking about This Is Us.
04:12You could have Susan Clayie Watson, who plays the wife of Sterling K. Brown's character, never
04:18nominated before, but had a great season and may benefit from sort of some fluidity in
04:24that category, which would be supporting actress in a drama.
04:28Julia Garner from Ozark has, you know, got even a SAG nomination where they combined lead
04:34and supporting actresses.
04:35She and Linny both got in at SAG, which suggests there's a lot of people that really like this
04:40show.
04:41That would be helpful for her.
04:42And I'll mention Sarah Goldberg for Barry.
04:45Ray Sehorne from Better Call Saul, who's also on Veep.
04:48And then, of course, from Game of Thrones, there are people who have never been nominated
04:52who, on the last shot, may get in there.
04:55Sophie Turner seems like the best bet, again, in Best Supporting Actress in a Drama.
04:59Without Littlefinger and Ramsay and the rest, I would have stayed a little bird all my life.
05:04Scott, thank you so much for all your insight and for sitting down with me.
05:06It'll be so interesting to see who possibly breaks through this year in these performance
05:10categories.
05:11And for much more on all things Emmys from Scott, be sure to go to THR.com slash The Race.
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