With a sigh of sadness, or perhaps relief, the Television Academy showered the outgoing fantasy series Game of Thrones with more nominations in a single season than any other show has earned before—breaking the previous record held by NYPD Blue. The show was expected to dominate the Emmys, but the extent of that domination—for this season, of all seasons—is still a bit staggering.
The HBO drama snagged 32 nominations, including best drama, lead actor noms for Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington, and a whopping seven nominations across the two supporting actor categories, handing out nods to Gwendoline Christie, Alfie Allen, Sophie Turner, and Maisie Williams on top of the expected nods for Lannisters Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, and Nikolaj Costar-Waldau. With so much recognition—and a writing nomination for creator-showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, for finale “The Iron Throne”—the Academy clearly favors the show.
Perhaps the most surprising takeaway from these Emmy nominations, in this much-discussed era of Peak Content, is how obviously weighted the spread is towards the handful shows that have managed to become appointment viewing. Saturday Night Live, for example, coasted its way to 18 total nominations on the back of six guest actor nominations—six separate host shoutouts, from Matt Damon to Sandra Oh. This suggests that voters didnt just watch a couple of episodes of SNL—they watched the whole season, enough to have an opinion on Adam Sandler vs. Emma Thompson. Ava DuVernays When They See Us also made a huge splash, indicating just how powerful and conversation-changing the Netflix miniseries was, with 16 nominations including a much-deserved best actor nomination for Jharrel Jerome. The deep bench of supporting acting nominations for Barry—I mean seriously, Anthony Carrigan nominated for his role as Noho Hank? Stephen Root's first-ever Emmy nomination?! Are the voters reading my diary?!!—indicates a lot of voters have eyeballs on it, as does the continued domination of treacly awards-favorite This Is Us. Even our old friend Ozark returned, snagging nine nominations for its second season, marking perhaps the biggest gulf between Academy appreciation and critical admiration for a drama.
Still, the 2019 voters have good taste, even if its a bit late-breaking. Imports Fleabag and Schitts Creek both managed to impress voters later in their runs, and with the spread of nominations attached to them, its as if the Academy never missed them in the first place. Schitts Creeks nominations ensure a sublime Emmys red carpet, featuring nominees Eugene Levy and Catherine OHara. And voters were so taken with the second season of Fleabag that they nominated not only regular cast members Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Sian Clifford, and Olivia Colman, but also guest actors Kristin Scott Thomas and Fiona Shaw, who literally has exactly one scene where she swears its possible to fuck God. (Intriguingly, and perhaps unsurprisingRead More – Source
[contf] [contfnew] 
Vanity Fair
[contfnewc] [contfnewc]
