The 68th Primetime Emmy® Awards Nominations Announced!

emmy-statuette

The Emmy® Award nominations for 2016 have been announced and there are the usual surprise inclusions and a few noteworthy snubs. (One noteworthy thing about this year’s acting noms (pay attention Oscars®): eighteen qualify as diverse.)

Rather than name a few of them here to just take up more space, I’ll make my comments by category. The list of major categories follow the jump. Feel free to list your kudos and brickbats for this year’s nominations and/or snubs in the comments.

The 69th Primetime Emmy® Awards will be broadcast live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, on ABC, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, on Sunday, September 18th (7/6C).

Drama Series

The Americans

Better Call Saul

Downton Abbey

Game of Thrones

Homeland

House of Cards

Mr. Robot

Kudos for including The Americans (at long bloody last!) and Mr. Robot (you got it right first time here, Academy – what happened?).

Brickbats for including Downton Abbey, House of Cars and Homeland – all of which have seen much better days (just they improved over their previous seasons doesn’t mean they belong here). Where are unREAL (a Peabody Award winner!), Orphan Black and The Leftovers (another Peabody winner!)? Or the incredible Homer and Pete? Where?

Comedy Series

Black-ish

Master of None

Modern Family

Silicon Valley

Veep

Transparent

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

The only complaints I have about this category are the inclusion of the incredibly tired Modern Family and the exclusion of Broad city.

Limited Series

American Crime

Fargo

The Night Manager

The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story

Roots

Looks about right to me.

Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Kyle Chandler, Bloodline

Rami Malek, Mr. Robot

Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul

Matthew Rhys, The Americans

Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan

Kevin Spacey, House of Cards

Matthew Rhys! Rami Malek! YES!

Kyle Chandler? Instead of Damien Lewis or Paul Giamatti from Billions? Really?

Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Claire Danes, Homeland

Viola Davis, How to Get Away With Murder

Taraji P Henson, Empire

Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black

Keri Russell, The Americans

Robin Wright, House of Cards

Eva Green gave a deeper, more nuanced performance – with more range – than Claire Danes or Robin Wright. Pity it was on a supernatural drama, Penny Dreadful. Ditto the amazing Krysten Ritter in Netflix’s Jessica Jones.

Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

Bryan Cranston, All the Way

Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock

Idris Elba, Luther

Cuba Gooding Jr., The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story

Tom Hiddleston, The Night Manager

Courtney B. Vance, The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story

Can’t argue with this lot.

Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie

Kirsten Dunst, Fargo

Felicity Huffman, American Crime

Audra McDonald, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill

Sarah Paulson, The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story

Lili Taylor, American Crime

Kerry Washington, Confirmation

Can’t argue here, either.

Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

Anthony Anderson, Black-ish

Aziz Ansari, Master of None

Will Forte, Last Man on Earth

William H. Macy, Shameless

Thomas Middleditch, Silicon Valley

Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent

Damn! Three categories in a row where I can’t argue.

Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

Ellie Kemper, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep

Laurie Metcalf, Getting On

Tracee Ellis Ross, Blackish

Amy Schumer, Inside Amy Schumer

Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie

Okay, Academy. Sacrilege coming up: Rachel Bloom had a much more demanding role than Lily Tomlin and aced it! Ditto Gina Rodriguez! (Oh, right. If it’s an hour, it’s drama! How incredibly silly of you!)

Supporting Actor in a Comedy

Louie Anderson, Baskets

Keegan-Michael Key, Key & Peele

Andre Braugher, Brooklyn  Nine-Nine

Ty Burrell, Modern Family

Tituss Burgess, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Matt Walsh, Veep

Tony Hale, Veep

Either of Jaime Camil and Yael Grobglas from Jane the Virgin would have been a better choice than Ty Burrell. (See also: rules silliness)

Supporting Actress in a Comedy

Niecy Nash, Getting On

Allison Janney, Mom

Kate McKinnon, Saturday Night Live

Judith Light, Transparent

Gaby Hoffmann, Transparent

Anna Chlumsky, Veep

No argument from me.

Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

Jonathan Banks, Better Call Saul

Ben Mendelsohn, Bloodline

Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones

Kit Harington, Game of Thrones

Michael Kelly, House of Cards

Jon Voight, Ray Donovan

You could have added David Tennant from Jessica Jones – or, if you were never going seven noms in this category, replaced Michael Kelly with him.

Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey

Lena Headey, Game of Thrones

Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones

Maisie Williams, Game of Thrones

Maura Tierney, The Affair

Constance Zimmer, UnREAL

No complaints here.

Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

Jesse Plemons, Fargo

Bokeem Woodbine, Fargo

Hugh Laurie, The Night Manager

Sterling K. Brown, People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story

David Schwimmer, People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story

John Travolta, People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story

Seems about right to me. 

Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie

Melissa Leo, All the Way

Regina King, American Crime

Sarah Paulson, American Horror Story: Hotel

Kathy Bates, American Horror Story: Hotel

Jean Smart, Fargo

Olivia Colman, The Night Manager

Yup.

Outstanding TV Movie

A Very Murray Christmas

All the Way

Confirmation

Luther

Sherlock

Not sure about All the Way, but Bryan Cranston’s performance does elevate the material substantially.

Variety Talk Series

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

Jimmy Kimmel Live

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver

The Late Late Show With James Cordon

Real Time With Bill Maher

Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon

You included John Oliver but not Full Frontal with Samantha Bee? Madness!

Variety Sketch Series

Documentary Now

Drunk History

Inside Amy Schumer

Key & Peele

Portlandia

Saturday Night Live

Okay.

Reality-Competition Program

The Amazing Race

American Ninja Warrior

Dancing With the Stars

Project Runway

Top Chef

The Voice

Never watched any of these.

Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition

Ryan Seacrest, American Idol

Tom Bergeron, Dancing With the Stars

Jane Lynch, Hollywood Game Night

Steve Harvey, Little Big Shots

Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn, Project Runway

RuPaul Charles, RuPaul’s Drag Race

Don’t really care (unless Lynch wins again – then, huzzah!).