‘Game of Thrones’, ‘Mr. Robot’ Lead 2016 Emmy Nominations
Game of Thrones, The People Vs. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story and Fargo received multiple nominations in major categories for the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards. Other notable nods include Mr. Robot‘s for Outstanding Drama Series and for actor Rami Malek, The People Vs. OJ Simpson for Outstanding Limited Series and recognitions for Cuba Gooding Jr., Courtney B. Vance and Sarah Paulson; The Americans for Outstanding Drama Series and for Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell; and Veep for Outstanding Comedy Series and for Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The awards ceremony, which Jimmy Kimmel will host, will be broadcast live from Los Angeles on ABC at 7 p.m. EST on September 18th.
Game of Thrones earned 23 nominations this year, one shy of its record-breaking year last year with 24. The People Vs. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story received the second most nominations (22), followed by Fargo (18).
Interesting snubs in major categories this year include ratings favorite The Big Bang Theory, Empire (save a nod for Taraji P. Henson), Orange Is the New Black, Lady Dynamite and Broad City. Also notable is the absence of Horace and Pete, Louis C.K.’s revolutionary website-only pay-per-view series; it received only a nomination for Laurie Metcalf’s guest appearance and one for editing.
As with recent years, the nominations reflect the changing television landscape. Premium cable channels and streaming services with buzzed-about prestige programming imbued many of the categories, while traditional over-the-air networks were comparatively hardly represented. In the Outstanding Comedy Series category, only Black-ish and Modern Family represented traditional networks. Meanwhile, only PBS was represented in drama for Downton Abbey.
Also notable is the number of high-quality shows nominated in the limited-series categories, making them some of the tightest competitions. Critical and popular favorites that cross genres, like The People Vs. OJ Simpson, Fargo, The Night Manager and the Roots revival, will all have to compete with one another.
The Television Academy named its nominations today at an event in Los Angeles. Black-ish star Anthony Anderson (who screamed when his nomination and co-star Tracee Ellis Ross’ nominations were announced) and Gilmore Girls alumna Lauren Graham announced nominations in each of the categories. This year’s nods cover shows that aired between June 1st, 2015 through May 31st of this year.
This year will mark the second time Jimmy Kimmel serves as the Emmys master of ceremonies, following his 2012 turn at the mic. “I am excited to be hosting the Emmys again,” he said in a statement. “I have a feeling I’m going to be great.”
Here are the nominations for the major categories of the 2016 Emmys: