Are 'This Is Us' & 'The Good Doctor' Broadcast Networks' Only Hope in Drama Series Emmy Race? | THR - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

The Big Four networks haven't won the category in 12 years, since Fox's '24' took the trophy.

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00:00I'm Tiffany Taylor for The Hollywood Reporter, and I'm here with THR's awards analyst, Scott Feinberg.

00:05And today we're talking all about Emmy nominations and whether or not any show from one of the four big broadcast networks

00:10has a shot at landing a drama series Emmy nomination this year.

00:14So Scott, talk to me about what happened with This Is Us last year.

00:18Well, first of all, it had been six years since a broadcast show, meaning CBS, NBC, ABC, or Fox,

00:25had gotten a drama series nomination until This Is Us did it last year.

00:30And then there was a question of, you know, could this show, which was such a phenomenon with critics and audiences,

00:35could it actually win, which had not happened since 2006?

00:39You know, it's hard to compete when you're a broadcast show.

00:41You have to have, you know, you have to kind of watch what you say and show.

00:44You have to make a lot more episodes than cable or streaming.

00:47You have to have commercials, which causes you to have to re-explain things when you come back from commercials.

00:52So it's hard to be kind of a cool, hip, edgy show when you're on a broadcast network.

00:58This Is Us managed to kind of navigate that last year and did, as I say, broke through and got that big drama series nomination.

01:05But the question then was, can it do it again as the series kind of progresses?

01:10Can any other show do it or is that going to be the last one that ever pulls it off?

01:13Because really, as cable and streaming have gotten better, it's been very hard for the broadcast shows to compete.

01:19And now This Is Us was nominated, but as we know, Hulu won with The Handmaid's Tale,

01:24marking the first drama series win ever for a streaming service.

01:27Right, or any series award for a streaming service. That was a big deal.

01:31So what does that mean for these broadcast shows this year in this drama series category?

01:35It means that it's less stigmatized to vote for a streaming show.

01:39I mean, the first one that got nominated was back in 2013 with House of Cards from Netflix.

01:44Hulu then joined the party last year, won in its first year of getting nominated.

01:49Amazon is not so much on the drama series side, but may well on the comedy series side compete this year.

01:57But for drama series, it's tough because people really do kind of equate a great drama series with edge.

02:03And, you know, darkness more and more these days.

02:06The innocence, whatever innocence there was still in the 90s when you could have certain broadcast shows competing,

02:11that kind of went out the window with Clinton Lewinsky, with 9-11, with a lot of the stuff that happened.

02:16I don't think it's coincidental that, and the other thing that happened around the turn of the century was the real rise of cable.

02:22And so you had The Sopranos being the first big one from HBO to really break through.

02:26But this year, you know, This Is Us will again be certainly in the mix, probably get nominated again.

02:32But the big question a lot of people are asking is, could another broadcast show join it?

02:37Is there any chance, or is that really the outlier?

02:39Well, that was my next question for you.

02:41What shows should we keep our eye on that maybe could break through in this category from the broadcast network?

02:47Beyond This Is Us, it's pretty bleak.

02:49But there's one that sort of has a remote hope, I think.

02:53And I wouldn't bet on it happening, but I would keep an eye on it.

02:56And that is ABC's The Good Doctor, which was a huge breakout in really similar style to This Is Us from a year ago.

03:04It's a very interesting thing because people love it and they're watching it.

03:08So I think people are looking closely at it.

03:11And it breaks out of that formulaic kind of broadcast issue that we were talking about by having a totally unconventional protagonist.

03:20This is a guy played by Freddie Highmore who's a young surgeon who happens to also have autism and savant syndrome.

03:27And that means that he's succeeding in ways that people normally don't and also struggling in ways that most TV protagonists don't.

03:34So it's definitely shaking things up.

03:36It's interesting.

03:37Freddie Highmore already got a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor.

03:41I think he does have a better shot than the show at getting an Emmy nomination as well.

03:44But you do have to keep an eye on the show as well.

03:47And while the show has gotten these great ratings and a lot of people really like it,

03:50do you think it might not be edgy enough or dark enough to receive an actual Emmy nomination?

03:56That's definitely the problem for it and for anything else on broadcast.

04:00It's just that it sort of blunts your head.

04:02You can't be as real as shows that can say or show anything.

04:07So, you know, when you're putting that up against, you know, Ozark or Westworld on HBO,

04:15you know, it's going to be tough for The Good Doctor to compare in a lot of ways.

04:18With all that being said, do you think these broadcast shows in the drama series category are on the verge of Emmy Extinction?

04:24Yeah, I mean, if This Is Us doesn't make it somehow this year, that might be the end.

04:30I mean, because it would probably be displaced, it would certainly be displaced by a cable or streaming show.

04:36So if This Is Us doesn't get in there this year, I can tell you that The Good Doctor won't be getting in there

04:42because This Is Us certainly has a better shot.

04:44We are in probably the final days of broadcast being able to compete

04:48because they're not putting out very many new shows that even aspire to be, you know, competitive at the Emmys.

04:54Why do you think there's such a divide between what the masses like and what they tune into and give these huge ratings for

04:59and what the Academy and voters deem is awards worthy?

05:03I mean, we have, in a way, similar things with the Oscars and Tonys.

05:07Very rarely now does the year's top blockbusters also win major Oscars outside of, like, visual effects and sound.

05:17You know, the biggest audiences are just inherently at broadcast.

05:20Those are the channels that everybody gets for free, so they get a built-in audience.

05:26But just because a lot of people are watching you doesn't mean that they feel that you are giving them

05:31what they are looking for when they then start thinking about awards.

05:34It's a different metric.

05:35Well, Scott, thank you so much for all of your insight.

05:37And for much more from Scott on this year's Emmy nominations, you can check out his blog at THR.com slash The Race.

Are 'This Is Us' & 'The Good Doctor' Broadcast Networks' Only Hope in Drama Series Emmy Race? | THR

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