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 A slew of first time Emmy contenders included Sandra Oh as the
first Asian-American lead comedy actress nominee for her role in
quirky spy series "Killing Eve," and Rachel Brosnahan's 1950s
housewife turned comedian in "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."
Female-led shows and stories also did well as television
continued to lead the way in reflecting social change, while the
likes of Donald Glover, Tracee Ellis-Ross, Penelope Cruz,
Antonio Banderas, Issa Rae, Regina King, and John Legend headed
a racially diverse acting line-up.
"Games of Thrones," a worldwide hit, got 22 nods, including for
the top prize of best drama series. It was followed by NBC's <CMSCA.O>
sketch show "Saturday Night Live" and HBO's sci-fi series "Westworld"
with 21 nominations each, and Hulu's dystopian vision "The
Handmaid's Tale" with 20.
Just five years after the launch of its first original series,
"House of Cards," Netflix ended HBO's 17-year streak as the most
Emmy-nominated network.
Netflix gathered 112 nods for shows that ranged from
supernatural drama "Stranger Things" and British royal show "The
Crown" to female wrestling comedy "GLOW," new Western drama
"Godless" and reality makeover series "Queer Eye."
HBO, which was recently acquired by wireless carrier AT&T Inc,
had 108 nominations, and noted in a statement that it was the
eighth year it had gathered 100 nominations or more. NBC shows
earned 78 nods.
Netflix campaigned heavily for the Emmys, the highest honors in
television, and says it has budgeted $8 billion for programming
in 2018. <nL2N1T61QO>
"Stranger Things" executive producer and director Shawn Levy
said the streaming service was a joy to work with.
"They follow our lead and they don't make us live inside a box
either creatively or financially, and that is almost unheard of
among networks and movie studios," Levy told Reuters on
Thursday.
The Emmy awards will be handed out in Los Angeles on Sept. 17
hosted by "Saturday Night Live" cast members Michael Che and
Colin Jost.
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"Game of Thrones" will compete for best drama with last year's Emmy
champion, Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale", which also won nods for
actresses Elisabeth Moss, Alexis Bledel, Samira Wiley, Ann Dowd and
Yvonne Strahovski.
Bruce Miller, executive producer of "The Handmaid's Tale,"
acknowledged that the show's vision of a theocracy where women are
treated as property was hard to watch.
"You are basically writing a show about the way you pray that the
world won't go, and then it starts going that way.
We sit around and pray for irrelevance," Miller told Reuters.
Other best drama contenders include "The Crown," NBC's family drama
"This Is Us," Cold War spy series "The Americans" on FX <FOXA.O> and
"Westworld."
"Game of Thrones" was out of the running in 2017 because the show
aired later than usual.
In the comedy categories, hip-hop themed FX show "Atlanta" is up
against Amazon's <AMZN.O> "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," ABC's <DIS.N>
"black-ish," "GLOW," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," quirky comedy "Barry",
tech comedy "Silicon Valley" and "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt."
FX's true crime dramatization "The Assassination of Gianni Versace"
led the limited series category with 18 nominations, including a
best actor nod for Darren Criss who plays the killer of the gay
Italian fashion designer.
Creator Ryan Murphy said it was a "heartbreaking story to tell, made
more so by the fact that we continue as a culture to grapple with
homophobia and shame and intolerance."
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant and Steve Gorman, Editing by Franklin
Paul and Marguerita Choy)
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