A Conclusion - The 70th Primetime Emmys Preview

[fandomwarrior]

The 69th Primetime Emmys at Microsoft Theater. Once more, the 70th running this year will be held in this exact place as well. (Image: TIME Magazine)

With the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards nominations already announced almost two months ago, we could guess which TV shows and actors will win the coveted award in television, with numerous new names and the returning ones we have been familiar with since the Golden Globes earlier this year.

As promised, I had to prepare this post ASAP in anticipation to the coveted TV award as I always have, not only to remind you readers who will be in the competition but also who my picks are. I would normally write a recap of this year's Teen Choice way earlier if you long-time readers notice but I don't seem to prioritize it regarding at how the winners are chosen (in a sad way). What's more, with People's Choice Awards promised to bring a new (and hopefully better) spirit this November, I have big expectations and hope that it's something in line of the actual "winners get real trophies" adaptation of poll-driven awards (like, say, the TV Scoop Awards and the SpoilerTV Awards). What's more I've given room to the recently-concluded Asian Games for some breather. I have to say this year's Games has to be the best I've ever seen, not just because it's because Jakarta and Palembang were the hosts but the opening ceremony, sporting moments, achievements by my country, and the closing ceremony left lots of memories!

Previously, HBO series Big Little Lies conquered the 69th running last year with six main wins and 10 Creative Arts wins, sweeping all the Limited Series/TV Movie categories. However, while the show has been ready for its second season, it is projected to air outside the eligibility criteria for this year, nullifying the show's second appearance for this year. However, The Handmaid's Tale returns to the Emmy circuit after a successful outing to defend their title, with Westworld and Game of Thrones ready to put a fight to the award winning Hulu series. With Veep's absence in the Comedy categories comes a new rivalry between returning contender Atlanta and freshman series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. In addition, The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story enters the Limited Series/TV Movie circuit with optimism, now in contention against others in the category including two of Black Mirror's series: USS Callister and Black Museum.

IN THE CONTENTION

The Primetime Emmys, now in its 70th edition, will once again award the best in primetime television programming, be it the series, the actors, or the other technical categories. The Emmys is considered as television's most prestigious prize bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS) since 1949, as opposed to the Academy Awards for movies, Tony Awards for stage theater, and Grammy Awards for music. The Primetime Emmys is separated into three ceremonies: the Primetime Engineering Emmys, awarding television's highest engineering honor, the Creative Arts Emmys, awarding the technical categories and guest acting as well, and the main Primetime Emmys, awarding series, actors, writers, and directors.

The winners for categories are determined by a ballot system open only to the Academy members. These ballots are sent to the members in June, in which all members are able to vote for best program categories, but for most categories, only members from each of the branches vote to determine the nominees. The final voting to determine the winners is held in August, and is done by the Academy's judging panels.

Nominations were announced at July 12, featuring television shows aired between June 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018, with the final voting held at August 13 until August 27 at 10pm PT, exactly two weeks of voting. The announcement was conducted by the Television Academy in a ceremony hosted by Chairman and CEO Hayma Washington, along with Samira Wiley from the Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale and Ryan Eggold from NBC's upcoming drama, New Amsterdam. Over 9,100 entries in 122 unique categories for the initial nomination were received during the preliminary phase of voting, and over 36 nominees make their first-time nominations. The nominations for this year, as Washington stated, continue to represent increased diversity and inclusion in front of the camera, as well as the wealth of new and returning programs reflecting the majority of today's critical issues.


Rachel Brosnahan in award-winning The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel performance. To be able to be the victor in this sacred stage, the show must overcome its half-hour rivals. (Image: Amazon via GoldDerby)

In the Comedy categories, Atlanta, GLOW, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel will once again face off to be crowned the new Comedy Series winner with Veep's absence. Donald Glover, in the Lead Actor category, will defend his last year's title against William H. Macy and Ted Danson, while the Lead Actress category will be a testament whether Rachel Brosnahan can complete her award collection she maintained since Golden Globes (except SAG Awards where she was not nominated) or not as Tracee Ellis Ross and Allison Janney join the fray with three others. The Supporting categories will also see Saturday Night Live nominees fighting against their scripted rivals, with reigning champion Alec Baldwin and Kenan Thompson up against Louie Anderson, Tony Shalhoub, Brian Tyree Henry, and Tituss Burgess in the male category, and another reigning champion Kate McKinnon, now with compatriots Aidy Bryant and Leslie Jones, do battle with GLOW's Betty Gilpin, Mrs. Maisel's Alex Borstein and Roseanne's Laurie Metcalf. Last but not least, Donald Glover will also contend for both Directing and Writing honors for two different episodes of his shows: "FUBU" for Directing, and "Alligator Man" for Writing, along with "Teddy Perkins" (Hiro Murai) and "Barbershop" (Stefani Robinson) as the show's additional contenders in respective categories. Amy Sherman-Palladino's Mrs. Maisel pilot episode will be Atlanta's direct rival in both Directing and Writing, and together both shows will also go up against nominations from HBO's new comedy series Barry and Silicon Valley. Finally, The Big Bang Theory ("The Bow Tie Asymmetry") and GLOW ("Pilot") completes the Directing race.

The Drama category will mark The Handmaid's Tale's second advent in the Emmys, and is set for yet another incoming sweep in the majority of its nominations. To do that though they will face TCA Awards' Program of the Year The Americans, whose series has recently concluded as of late, NBC's flagship drama This Is Us, and HBO's best match of Game of Thrones and Westworld. As opposed to Hulu's critically-acclaimed series, Elisabeth Moss will also seek for her second Emmys after a successful awards season outing earlier this year, but standing on her path will be the likes of Keri Russell, Claire Foy, Tatiana Maslany, Evan Rachel Wood, and Sandra Oh, the first Asian actress to be nominated in the Lead Actress category for her Killing Eve role. The Lead Actor category will also see This Is Us's Sterling K. Brown's incoming second Emmy against Matthew Rhys, Jeffrey Wright, and his compatriot Milo Ventimiglia, along with the new contender in the form of Ozark's Jason Bateman. Raising the flag for the Handmaids in the Supporting Actor category will be Joseph Fiennes, whose rivals will include Peter Dinklage and David Harbour, with a trio of Ann Dowd, Alexis Bledel, and Yvonne Strahovski will set their sight in the battle that also pits them against Vanessa Kirby, Lena Headey, Thandie Newton, and Millie Bobby Brown. The rivalry between The Crown, THT, GoT, and Stranger Things will also carry towards Directing and Writing categories, which also features Killing Eve's Phoebe Waller-Bridge and The Americans's Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg for the former plus two of Ozark's episodes in the latter, which also includes Bateman's directed episode "The Toll".


Perhaps another one of those "Praise Be!" prayer's circles, but one thing's for sure: The Handmaid's Tale isn't here to play around, especially in its second Emmy outing. (Image: Hulu via Signal Horizon)

The Limited Series and TV Movie honors will be awarded separately, with The Assassination Of Gianni Versace, the second season of Ryan Murphy's crime anthology American Crime Story, in contention with The Alienist and Godless in the first category, and Black Mirror's USS Callister in the second category alongside Lifetime's Flint and three HBO contenders. It is in the acting categories however the limited series and TV movies go directly head-to-head, with TCA Awards winner Darren Criss, in his critically-acclaimed Andrew Cunanan character, up against USS Callister's Jesse Plemons and Patrick Melrose's Benedict Cumberbatch for Lead Actor, and big names Sarah Paulson, Michelle Dockery, Regina King, and Laura Dern for Lead Actress alongside Edie Falco and Jessica Biel. The influx of nominations for Gianni Versace in both Supporting categories could mean that the second anthology series could replicate the success of The People v. O.J. Simpson, but to get there, either Ricky Martin, Edgar Ramírez, or Finn Wittrock must overcome Jeff Daniels and John Leguizamo in Supporting Actor, and either Penélope Cruz and Judith Light must do the same against Adina Porter and Letitia Wright (representing another Black Mirror episode, Black Museum) in Supporting Actress. Last but not least the anthology series will also have a different episode for Directing and Writing horse race each; "The Man Who Would Be Vogue" directed by Ryan Murphy, and "House By The Lake" written by Tom Rob Smith. Murphy's rivals will include Twin Peaks's David Lynch and Godless's Scott Frank, while Smith's will also have the same rival with the addition of William Bridges and Charlie Brooker, writers of the USS Callister.

Last but not least, the Guest Acting categories, which are awarded in the Creative Arts, has an array of interesting rosters; in Comedy, last year's Lead Drama Actor winner Sterling K. Brown goes face-to-face against another last year winner Donald Glover, along with Bryan Cranston and Lin-Manuel Miranda for Guest Actor, with Tiffany Haddish, Tina Fey, Wanda Sykes, and Jane Lynch decorate the Guest Actress part. Battling another THT trio (Samira Wiley, Cherry Jones, Kelly Jenrette) in the Guest Drama Actress are the likes of Diana Rigg, Cicely Tyson, and EGOT winner Viola Davis, whereas Gerald McRaney once again attempts to collect his second win in the Guest Drama Actor category against Matthew Goode, F. Murray Abraham, Cameron Britton, Ron Cephas Jones, and Jimmi Simpson.


Darren Criss in his role as Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. The question now lies whether the second series in the American Crime Story true crime anthology will follow The People v. O.J. Simpson's success in 2016. (Image: FX via Daily Express)

Limiting to only main ceremony nominations, The Assassination Of Gianni Versace is the most-nominated show with 9, followed by Atlanta and The Handmaid's Tale with 8, with all three being favorites in their genre. Uniquely, though, while Gianni Versace would most likely be the big winner of the upcoming awards with six possible category wins, the mentioned Comedy and Drama favorites also have the same possible category wins, and so do their rivals: Mrs. Maisel and Barry get the same amount of possible category wins in Comedy while Game of Thrones, though only have five possible category wins in contrast to THT's 6, should be a good competitor in the Drama race, especially with the fact that the critically-acclaimed HBO Sci-Fi/Fantasy series has 22 nominations in total with Creative Arts nominations combined, followed by Saturday Night Live and Westworld with 21, and The Handmaid's Tale completing the 20 nominations club just behind. Gianni Versace receives 18 nominations with Comedy rivals Atlanta, Mrs. Maisel, and Barry scoring 16, 14, and 13 nominations respectively. By platform, streaming service Netflix leads the way with 112 nominations, with cable network HBO tailing behind in 108, and broadcast network NBC completing the top 3 78. That's three different syndications in the Top 3!

The nominations for the main categories are available on GoldDerby, which also includes nominations for Variety, Sketch, and Reality categories. As with Creative Arts, whose winners were announced yesterday, you can check out this page courtesy of GoldDerby as well (I will talk about the Creative Arts winners in the next Emmys post). and the complete list in PDF format, along with other supplemental information on the nominees, is available for download on the Television Academy's site.

THE LAST PREDICTION BATTLE

Limiting myself to only the main award and scripted programming, the prediction comes back! That's right, the prediction for the Emmys will only revolve on the main categories involving scripted TV shows, spanning from programming, acting, writing, and directing categories. The prediction will act as the conclusion to not only the TV chapter but also this year's prediction as a whole. Kinda wished that there's somekind of an online tournament in which users compete in a prediction contest spanning all prestigious awards. It'd make a great concept, hopefully.

To recap how my predictions have progressed this Awards Season, I've managed to guess all 11 TV winners correctly in Golden Globes though only 13 out of 24 correct for movie winners. In Critics' Choice however, I tanked hard with only 21 out of 41 correct, 12 (out of 24) for movies and 9 (out of 17) from TV. Things took a more positive turn with SAG Awards with a perfect six for movies and five out of nine correct predictions for TV courtesy of the upset which This Is Us and The Crown delivered to the Handmaids, and last but not least my Oscars result of 13/19 concluded the movie chapter, of which I have correctly predicted a total of 44/73 movie categories across all awards concerned, about 60% here. The Emmys will of course become the conclusion of the TV chapter and effectively awards season as a whole, with my TV predictions standing at 25/37 with 22 main category predictions up for grabs.

And now with the number of categories have been set, it's time to do some prediction, for the final time this year. Predictions are separated into three categories for the sake of organizing: programming categories, acting categories (lead and supporting), and writing & directing categories. In addition, my comments on the predictions will be summed up for all categories down below.

Programming Categories

• Outstanding Drama Series - The Handmaid's Tale is pretty much a strong contender here so this one's a no-brainer.
• Outstanding Comedy Series - No-brainer number 2; The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
• Outstanding Limited Series - The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story seems to be a strong contender with virtually no competition. That'd make No-brainer number 3
• Outstanding TV Movie - Now this one's a case of a random pick (although it's more because of being mainstream); Black Mirror: USS Callister.

Acting Categories

• Lead Actor, Drama - Sterling K. Brown, just like last year.
• Lead Actress, Drama - Torn between Elisabeth Moss, Sandra Oh, and Keri Rusell (I'm not even sure if my favorite Tatiana Maslany would be possible... :( ), but ultimately it's down to Elisabeth Moss.
• Supporting Actor, Drama - If SAG Awards were to go by... it's David Harbour.
• Supporting Actress, Drama - Probably one of the most exciting categories for this year. Hopefully I don't get thrown into Narnia for this... Ann Dowd.
• Lead Actor, Comedy - Donald Glover, a clear lock.
• Lead Actress, Comedy - Rachel Brosnahan.
• Supporting Actor, Comedy - My gut says that someone from Saturday Night Live will win this so it has to be, once again, Alec Baldwin.
• Supporting Actress, Comedy - Same outcome, different perspective; Kate McKinnon.
• Lead Actor, Limited Series/TV Movie - Darren Criss.
• Lead Actress, Limited Series/TV Movie - Tough call with these top names in different series I don't watch... I know people have said Jessica Biel should deserve one so there you go.
• Supporting Actor, Limited Series/TV Movie - Random pick here; Ricky Martin.
• Supporting Actress, Limited Series/TV Movie - Letitia Wright, yet another random pick.

Writing & Directing Categories

• Drama Writing - Bruce Miller for The Handmaid's Tale's "June".
• Drama Directing - Jeremy Podeswa for Game of Thrones's "The Dragon And The Wolf".
• Comedy Writing - Amy Sherman-Palladino for Mrs. Maisel's pilot episode. I know I've watched the first ten minutes of this show, and I think the dialogues were fun.
• Comedy Directing - Donald Glover for Atlanta's "FUBU".
• Limited Series/Movie/Dramatic Special Writing - Tom Rob Smith for The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story's "House By The Lake".
• Limited Series/Movie/Dramatic Special Directing - Ryan Murphy for The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story's "The Man Who Would Be Vogue".

Comments
The Handmaid's Tale, Mrs. Maisel, and Gianni Versace are the favorites here when it comes to sweeps for their respective categories. If anything in the Golden Globes (and TCA Awards to some extent) were to go by, I have big expectations for these shows. With THT's second-year advent and Veep's absence that leaves an open race, things can get a little predictable when it comes to favorites. I can't say much about TV Movie and Limited Series (since it might be Gianni Versace's night anyway) but having Atlanta and The Americans as their respective categories' rivals should spice up the competition a bit.

In acting categories, I see Brosnahan and Glover as locks in Comedy though I'm unsure for the supporting ones, although there's a big possibility that SNL casts are at it again. I can see Sterling K. Brown defending his Lead Drama Actor win if last year were to go by, unless if plot twists get in the way of his win, while Lead Drama Actress will be a hot one: Elisabeth Moss is a lock for me, but my gut says Sandra Oh can make a history or Keri Russell will take this one after her TCA Awards win. Critics' Choice Awards wins are my guide for choosing the Supporting category winners in the same genre. Last but not least, I let my gut decide for Limited Series/TV Movie categories as well as writing and directing categories across all three genres.

Finally, the final prestigious awards for this year's Awards Season is finally here! Will The Handmaid's Tale keep their last year's dominance in the Drama category or will the TCA Awards victor The Americans reign supreme for the final time? Who will come out victorious in the Mrs. Maisel vs. Atlanta Comedy derby after Veep's absence? Will the previous award wins for Rachel Brosnahan, Sterling K. Brown, Elisabeth Moss, and William H. Macy, among others, do wonders? Will Sandra Oh finally make the history as the first Asian winner in the Lead Drama Actress category? And most importantly, will The Assassination of Gianni Versace, the second American Crime Story season, follow the success of its predecessor, The People v. O.J. Simpson? Only time will tell.

The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards will be live on Monday, September 17 at 8 pm ET/5pm PT from Los Angeles' Microsoft Theater, and will be televised on NBC, hosted by Colin Jost and Michael Che from SNL fame. Non-US viewers can check their local time and TV/cable listings.

~[R]