Emmy Award Nominations

Nominations for the 76th Emmy Awards were recently announced; the ceremony is scheduled to air live on ABC from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, Sept. 15 from 8:00 to 11:00 pm ET.

In order to be eligible, submitted television programming had to air between June 1, 2023 and May 31, 2024. The remnants of the pandemic, the double whammy of the 2023 writers and actors strikes, and inevitable industry cost-cutting measures led to fewer contenders than usual.

As a result, FX’s “Shogun” — about 17th century feudal Japan — led the pack with 25 nominations, including best drama series. Although it was made by an American company for a domestic streamer, most of the dialogue was in Japanese, indicating that viewers have become more accustomed to reading subtitles.

FX’s “The Bear” was second with 23 nominations, a comedy series record. Of course, questions still arise as to whether it really is a comedy. Then comes Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” with 21, HBO/Max’s “True Detective: Night Country” with 19 and Netflix’s “The Crown” with 18.

This year, members of the Television Academy had to come up with new favorites since stalwarts like “Succession” had already aired its conclusion, making the final season of “The Crown” the only returning nominee in the drama category.

Until this year, “The Morning Show” had never received a major nomination, despite being eligible on multiple occasions, nor had “Slow Horses,” “Reservation Dogs,” “Hacks,” “3 Body Problem” and “The Gilded Age.”

It’s disappointing that excellent miniseries like “A Gentleman in Moscow” and “Expats” were overlooked, despite memorable performances by respective stars Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman. Plus Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks’s “Masters of the Air” only earned nods for main title theme music, sound mixing and sound editing.

On the other hand, it’s gratifying to note that the Broadway-influenced third season of “Only Murders in the Building” could produce an EGOT (a term designating winners of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) for songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who won an Oscar for the song “City of Angels” in “La La Land,” Tonys for producing the stage musical “A Strange Loop” and writing the original score for “Dear Evan Hansen,” along with a Grammy for best musical theater album.