- 2 days ago
The two discuss the shows with the most nominations, major snubs, and the legitimacy of and lead, supporting, and guest acting nomination.
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00:00Welcome, it's Emmy nominations day. I am Michael O'Connell, The Hollywood Reporter.
00:05I just realized I'm wearing the same shirt that I wore on Emmy noms morning last year.
00:09Is it your lucky shirt or your unlucky shirt?
00:11I wasn't nominated again, so it must be unlucky.
00:14I am joined by our TV critic.
00:17I'm Dan Feinberg.
00:18You're Dan Feinberg.
00:19I am.
00:19Yes.
00:20Also from The Hollywood Reporter.
00:21Oh, and that's why we're here.
00:23Coincidence.
00:24I mean, the big news out of today, Saturday Night Live.
00:28I have most nominations of any show.
00:30And some strange nominations, frankly.
00:33Or maybe not strange, just kind of a, we're going to nominate everything.
00:36Everything.
00:37Like all of the actresses on the show, sure, have nominations, all of you.
00:41Poor Amy Bryant.
00:42I feel like if you look at the actresses, it's the ones who didn't get the nominations.
00:46You're like, boy, that's telling you something.
00:48A nice swan song for Vanessa Bayer, though, because she's leaving.
00:51True.
00:52And so, you know, and Leslie Jones had all the hype last year of Ghostbusters,
00:55and this was a big year for her, and obviously Kate McKinnon's.
00:57Yeah.
00:58Kate McKinnon.
00:58The most interesting thing for me is that Alec Baldwin was not nominated for playing Various,
01:03which everyone always is on Saturday Night Live.
01:06He was nominated for playing the President of the United States.
01:09Which is impressive.
01:10And, of course, then you had, so while Sean Spicer as a role did not get Melissa McCarthy a nomination,
01:17she did get a nomination for the episode she hosted in which I'm sure she played Sean Spicer
01:21because she must have, because she played him constantly during the season.
01:24Yeah.
01:24Yeah, lots and lots of nominations, so thank you, Donald Trump, for making Saturday Night Live relevant again.
01:29Something, yeah.
01:31The most exhaustive Emmy discussion leading up to today has been what is going to fill the vacancy left by
01:40Game of Thrones
01:40because they weren't eligible this year, and the answer, it turns out, was Westworld.
01:45You're saying Westworld, but not Stranger Things, but not, so the Crown definitely took the place of Downton Abbey.
01:50So we just say, okay, that one's easy.
01:52But, I mean, Westworld had 22 nominations.
01:54It tied with SNL by far the most of any scripted program.
01:59Beat Stranger Things by four.
02:02And that's also one where everybody got nominated, including some people who, let's be frank,
02:08did not deserve to be nominated.
02:09Anthony Hopkins is not a lead actor on that show.
02:12He did not deserve a lead actor nomination for that show.
02:16Whether Jeffrey Wright deserved it for supporting, I think he probably did.
02:19Evan Rachel Wood really was a supporting actress on that show, and yet they put her in lead
02:24and put Thandie Newton in supporting and got nominations for both of them.
02:27So lots and lots of nominations.
02:29Who has the edge for acting in Westworld, if anyone?
02:36I don't know.
02:37I mean, I would have thought Thandie Newton, but who knows?
02:41It's a tough category.
02:42I mean, when it comes to acting nominations, I'm really just pretty much hung up on the fact
02:45that Barb got a nomination for Stranger Things.
02:47Barb.
02:47I'm just, I just can't get past that.
02:50That Shannon Purser got a nomination for basically being an online sensation for people
02:55freaking out because a character who they kind of liked for like 10 minutes of screen time died.
03:02Not to like take anything away from the huge accomplishment, Barb.
03:07Guest actor and actress is a, is such a strange little thing.
03:12It's the funniest little people can like slip in there.
03:15And for like 20 second roles and it ends up being weird things.
03:18So that's how you end up with Ann Dowd getting the only nomination for The Leftovers in a fantastic
03:23final season that surely should have gotten nominations for Carrie Coon and Justin Theroux
03:28and probably two or three other people and for writing and for directing.
03:32And yet Ann Dowd for a brief, brief cameo.
03:36Basically taking the Margot Martindale.
03:38The Margot Martindale and the Americans.
03:39Yeah.
03:40And this year Margot Martindale got bumped up to supporting actress because she was in
03:44too many episodes and vanished.
03:46Speaking of the Americans not nominated for best drama.
03:49Wow.
03:50So many freshmen in that race.
03:51Nearly unprecedented.
03:53Five shows.
03:54Five new shows.
03:54Well, it's just amazing with the Americans because last year there, it really was this
03:58big deal.
03:59Will the Emmy voters recognize the Americans?
04:01Will they remember that this show that they've never recognized before existed?
04:04And they did.
04:05And we were all, yay, well done guys.
04:07And they were like, okay, well, job, well done.
04:09Next year we'll do other stuff.
04:11And it really, they got distracted by all the new stuff.
04:14I think they did.
04:15And so This Is Us, so many nominations for This Is Us.
04:17I know.
04:18This is exhausting.
04:20I, you know, and some of them make total sense.
04:22Sterling K. Brown, Ron Cephas Jones.
04:24I'm so happy for Gerald McCraney.
04:27I mean.
04:27Oh, Gerald.
04:28So good on that show.
04:31But, come on, my love, Ed D'Amelia as lead actor.
04:34Like, I feel bad when, because people love him.
04:37I wish I had a hot take.
04:39I have not watched a frame of that show.
04:40Why have you not watched a frame of that show?
04:41I feel like this is when we do our annual Emmy thing, sit down.
04:45It's the what show has Mikey not watched that he should have watched.
04:48I don't remember what last year's was, but this year's apparently is This Is Us.
04:51Should I have watched This Is Us?
04:53It's a good show.
04:54I mean, but it's not a very good show, and it's not a great show, but it's a good show.
04:58And it's very nice to, if you're a Gilmore Girls fan, see Jess nominated for lead actor,
05:03and to see Rory get a nomination for guest actress, which she really deserved for Handmaid's
05:08Tale, which got a lot of nominations in it also.
05:11Gilmore Girls, The Revival not nominated.
05:14But Rory got her nomination for Handmaid's Tale, and probably significantly more deserving.
05:19Handmaid's Tale does not have the most nominations of any new series.
05:23I think it ranks, like, fifth or sixth.
05:28Still pretty good.
05:29Still pretty good.
05:30Is there a consensus drama going into this, or is it just a wide open field?
05:35I think you have to, you could probably point to, like, five or six different shows and
05:38go, okay, that has the support.
05:40So This Is Us definitely has the populism.
05:44It has the network.
05:45It has the, okay, we're not just...
05:46We all know that award shows in Hollywood are populist.
05:48I think every three or four or five years, it helps to say, okay, we're going to recognize
05:52a show people have actually watched.
05:54So I think that obviously makes that a contender.
05:56But I think The Crown has a large voting block, and it won big guild awards and all of that.
06:02I haven't watched The Crown either.
06:05But Stranger Things won the SAG Ensemble Award.
06:08And the PGA.
06:09Which are both really, really big guild predictors.
06:12And obviously the nostalgia...
06:13I mean, Barb got an Emmy nomination.
06:15I know.
06:17Comedy, there's not much to say.
06:20Another big year for Veep.
06:23Many, many nominations.
06:24Many nominations.
06:25And what are you going to say?
06:25Veep's a great show.
06:27No, I mean, Atlanta's...
06:28Modern Family still sneaking in there.
06:30What the hell, Emmy voters?
06:31I mean, House of Cards, move away from it.
06:36Modern Family, move away from it.
06:38Step away from the shows that aren't good anymore, that you keep nominating on Reflex.
06:43It's embarrassing.
06:44Sometimes you just want that, like, familiar, like, tuna sandwich.
06:48You just want to, like, tuck in.
06:50I have watched every episode of Modern Family.
06:52I still watch Modern Family.
06:54That tuna sandwich has been in that vending machine for three or four years.
06:59Mayonnaise does not stay good that long.
07:02For anyone watching under the age of 40, sandwiches used to be in vending machines.
07:06It was a whole thing.
07:07Oh, I thought you were going to say, yeah, millennials don't eat tuna fish sandwiches.
07:10Oh, wow.
07:11I don't.
07:12But no, so Atlanta, I think, though, is the story there.
07:14Okay.
07:14I mean, with Donald Glover getting nominated for acting, for directing, for writing, that's pretty impressive.
07:20And also, it was a really great season.
07:21And Pamela Adlon getting nominated for acting.
07:24Something totally deserved.
07:26So I can accentuate the positive in a lot of these categories or just be bitter about House of Cards
07:32and Barb.
07:32I mean, speaking of bitter, we can definitely move into snubs.
07:36I was surprised that Insecure didn't really break into comedy.
07:41I thought there was a lot of affection around that show.
07:44I think there was, but I think, I mean, Netflix obviously did not have the problem with cannibalizing itself in
07:49the drama categories.
07:50But I think that if you're HBO and you have Silicon Valley and Veep and they're as powerful as they
07:56are, I think Insecure really just got lost in the shuffle there.
07:59And I think that's too bad because I think Issa Rae should have been nominated for something.
08:03I would have said maybe a script here or there.
08:05You know, there should have been some recognition for that show.
08:07There should have been some recognition, I think, for Fleabag, which was a remarkable show.
08:13And Phoebe Waller-Bridge, great acting, writing, etc.
08:17So there were lots of places that you could have recognized outsider shows and most of the Emmy voters didn't.
08:23Are there any insider shows that didn't get nominated that you're surprised?
08:27Not much Mr. Robot this year.
08:29I think cinematography?
08:30Remember Mr. Robot?
08:31Remember Mr. Robot?
08:32Last year we were all like, ooh, we love Mr. Robot.
08:35It's everything.
08:36And Rami Malek, who was still great even if the second season wasn't, he won and now he's gone.
08:41So between him and between Tatiana Maslany not being eligible this year and Game of Thrones not being eligible,
08:48there are going to be a lot of new drama winners everywhere.
08:50Yeah.
08:52Other notable snubs?
08:54Mr. Fallon?
08:55Mr. Fallon.
08:57The variety talk category skewed towards the political this year.
09:03Um, so Jimmy Fallon lost out, but Stephen Colbert back in the race after an absence.
09:10After a strange punishment last year for not being as good as people wanted him to be.
09:14And then everyone apparently read THR's, uh, Stephen Colbert's backstory and they're like, ooh, Stephen Colbert's back.
09:19I know, it was us.
09:20I think so.
09:21Um, but what do you make of the fact that Emmy voters apparently punished Jimmy Fallon for whatever, but Bill
09:29Maher apparently is okay?
09:30I think Emmy voters may have just been making up for the fact that they ignored Samantha Bee last year,
09:37which got a lot of flack.
09:40Deserved flack.
09:41Deserved flack.
09:42Uh, so much more heat in her second year.
09:45And Stephen Colbert, who very easily could have been nominated his first year, didn't have the heat, but no shortage
09:51of heat this year.
09:52So you figure it's a, things ascending rather than things being pushed down kind of thing.
09:59Okay.
09:59Uh, a byproduct of this peak TV that we're having.
10:03Huh.
10:04Tell me more about peak TV.
10:07I would rather talk about how Oprah wasn't nominated because that feels like a snub.
10:10It's a bit of a surprise because even people who didn't like that HBO movie she did.
10:15Agreed that her performance was, yeah.
10:17Said that Oprah was impressive, but on the other hand, you look at that category, and that was the same
10:21category that had the two feud leading ladies who were never not going to be nominated.
10:25The two, uh, Big Little Lies leading ladies who, and I heard a lot of skepticism about Reese Witherspoon leading
10:31up to the nominations, but come on.
10:33Agree to disagree.
10:34Oh, no, no, I'm just saying, I heard skepticism about her getting the nomination.
10:37Not about her, to me, I thought she was great.
10:40Yeah.
10:40To me, I would never have had any question, and that's where Carrie Coon did get her nomination.
10:45Oh, Carrie Coon.
10:46So, you know, I guess there was no room for poor Oprah.
10:49I know.
10:50But, yeah, that was definitely a surprise.
10:53Uh-huh.
10:54Um, Feud got an awful lot.
10:57It did.
10:57Sort of filled the OJ vacancy.
11:01Pretty much directly, I would say.
11:04If you look at sort of the cross-the-board supporting cast, I mean, Jackie Hoffman got a nomination, which
11:08I was...
11:09It was pretty stellar.
11:09Oh, I was so happy, because she, you know, in a cast of Oscar winners and all of that, she
11:14wasn't.
11:14She was, you know, she was sort of the veteran character actress who came in and actually just gave a
11:18great performance and was a breakout.
11:20So I'm glad to see they noticed her in addition to all the people with the Oscars.
11:23Do you know who doesn't like being called a character actress?
11:25I hear that the two-time Emmy nominee this year, Ann Dowd, does not like being called the character actress.
11:31Don't call her a character actress.
11:36I'm trying to think of who else was left out this year.
11:40Are there any...
11:41Did anything leave you a little heartbroken?
11:43I will say, not as a critic, but as just a common man, that I was disappointed to see The
11:51Leftovers not get any due for its final season.
11:54It was such a good show.
11:54Oh, crushing, because, as you say, last season, there are no more chances to nominate that show.
12:00So the fact that they couldn't nominate Carrie Coon, Justin Theroux, that they couldn't nominate Mimi Leder for directing,
12:05that Damon Lindelof couldn't get any recognition for steering that ship into harbor as well as he did, that's sad.
12:12Rectify is another show that is no longer on the air and will no longer be able to get Emmy
12:16recognition.
12:18Literally will never be mentioned again after this video.
12:20That is not true.
12:21I'm kidding.
12:22It's really well done.
12:23There are bitter TV critics who are going to be complaining about that forever.
12:27There are bitter TV critics?
12:28Hi, Dan Fowler.
12:30Bitter TV critic for The Hollywood Reporter.
12:32So, Dan, I think that we should just leave it on what is your biggest gripe and what are you
12:39most satisfied with?
12:40I know it's Barb, but...
12:42So, yeah, biggest gripe, Barb.
12:44No, biggest gripe is really House of Cards.
12:46I mean, because Barb just was sort of negligible and became a thing, whereas House of Cards is, at this
12:52point, a bad TV show.
12:55And did not deserve a slot that could have gone to good TV shows.
13:00Similarly, Modern Family is, at this point, a bad TV show that took slots that could have gone to good
13:07TV shows.
13:07So those are the ones that upset me.
13:09I was happy with all the Handmaid's Tale recognition beyond just Elizabeth Moss.
13:14I was happy with Reed Murano.
13:15I was happy with a lot of the supporting performers.
13:18Those.
13:18How about you?
13:20I have no opinions.
13:21I am but a humble reporter.
13:25I'm excited for Handmaid's Tale.
13:26I watched that show.
13:27It was good, and I feel like a lot of...
13:30I feel good things about that.
13:32And I think that's another one of those things where there's at least a sort of political overtone that helped
13:36it as well.
13:36I don't think that it helped it be a great show, but I think it helped it give people reasons
13:41to talk about it.
13:42There's a theme here.
13:45I wish that I had prepared some sort of, like, Frank Underwood-y thing where I broke from you and
13:51just started talking, and we closed it out on that.
13:54But I didn't.
13:56So that's all I got.
13:57We got two months until the Emmy Awards, September 18th.
14:02We're going to be able to talk this to death.
14:03Oh, we're going to talk it to death.
14:04We're going to talk to everyone who's nominated.
14:06It's going to be exhaustive.
14:07Oh, are you talking to Barb?
14:08I, you know what, maybe.
14:10I'm sure she's available.
14:12God bless her.
14:14So that's all from us right now, but stay tuned to THR.com because it is only going to get
14:21more Emmys-y from here on out.
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