'Game of Thrones’ earns a leading 23 Emmy Award nominations
Power-and-blood fantasy saga “Game of Thrones” ruled the Emmy Award nominations Thursday with a leading 23 bids, including best drama, while a real-life epic of murder and celebrity, “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” was close behind with 22 nods.
“Game of Thrones,” which won a record 12 Emmys last fall including best drama, gets the chance to claim its second top award. “Veep,” last year’s best comedy series winner, also will get another shot at holding office and, with 17 nominations, was the comedy leader.
Breakthrough nominations include a best comedy series nod for sophomore “black-ish,” which brought the African-American family sitcom back to network TV, with bids as well for its stars, Anthony Anderson – who helped announce the awards live on Thursday and read his show’s name with glee – and his co-star Tracee Ellis Ross.
“I’m on cloud nine right now,” Anderson said afterward. “When hope becomes reality, that’s what it is. I was just a 9-year-old kid growing up in Compton, California, with a dream and this is the dream that I had.”
They were among a number of black actors recognized by TV academy voters, who have started to keep pace with TV’s growing diversity – in sharp contrast to moviedom’s Academy Awards, which were slammed as “Oscars So White” this year.
Viola Davis, the “How to Get Away with Murder” star who last year became the first woman of color to win a best drama actress trophy, was nominated again. So was “Empire” star Taraji P. Henson.
Each of the major acting categories included at least one minority nominee. But there were no major nods for the stars of “Fresh Off the Boat” or other Asian-American actors, or for Latinos, which has been a recurrent Emmy pattern.
Networks have reason for concern as well. In the increasingly crowded TV universe, traditional broadcasts again lost Emmy ground to emerging platforms, including streaming services Netflix and Amazon, both of which boosted their tallies. Even HBO, which again earned the most bids led by “Game of Thrones,” marked a retreat in what had been its ever-growing dominance: its haul dropped from 126 nods last year to 94 this time.
Nominees in some key categories
Outstanding Comedy Series: “black-ish,” “Master of None,” “Modern Family,” “Silicon Valley,” “Transparent,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” “Veep.”
Outstanding Drama Series: “Better Call Saul,” “Downton Abbey,” “Game of Thrones,” “Homeland, “House of Cards,” “Mr. Robot,” “The Americans.”
Actor, Drama Series: Bob Odenkirk, “Better Call Saul”; Kyle Chandler, “Bloodline”; Kevin Spacey, “House of Cards”; Rami Malek, “Mr. Robot”; Liev Schreiber, “Ray Donovan”; Matthew Rhys, “The Americans.”
Supporting Actor, 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.”
Actress, Drama Series: Taraji P. Henson, “Empire”; Claire Danes, “Homeland”; Robin Wright, “House of Cards”; Viola Davis, “How to Get Away With Murder”; Tatiana Maslany, “Orphan Black”; Keri Russell, “The Americans.”
Supporting Actress, Drama Series: Maura Tierney, “The Affair”; Maggie Smith, “Downton Abbey”; Lena Headey, “Game of Thrones”; Emilia Clarke, “Game of Thrones”; Maisie Williams, “Game of Thrones.”
Actor, Comedy Series: Anthony Anderson, “black-ish”; Aziz Ansari, “Master of None”; William H. Macy, “Shameless”; Thomas Middleditch, “Silicon Valley,” Will Forte, “The Last Man on Earth”: Jeffrey Tambor, “Transparent.”
Actress, Comedy Series: Tracee Ellis Ross, “black-ish”; Laurie Metcalf, “Getting On”; Lily Tomlin, “Grace and Frankie”: Amy Schumer, “Inside Amy Schumer”; Ellie Kemper, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”; Julia Louis-Dreyfus, “Veep.”
Supporting Actor, Comedy Series: Louie Anderson, “Baskets”; Andre Braugher, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”; Keegan-Michael Key, “Key & Peele”; Ty Burrell, “Modern Family”; Tituss Burgess, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”; Tony Hale, “Veep.”
Supporting Actress, Comedy Series: Niecy Nash, “Getting On”; Allison Janney, “Mom”; Kate McKinnon, “Saturday Night Live”; Judith Light, “Transparent”; Gaby Hoffmann, “Transparent”; Anna Chlumsky “Veep.”
Limited Series: “American Crime,” “Fargo,” “Roots,” “The Night Manager,” “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”
Limited Series or Movie, Lead Actor: Bryan Cranston, “All the Way”; Idris Elba, “Luther”; Benedict Cumberbatch, “Sherlock: The Abominable Bride”; Tom Hiddleston, “The Night Manager”; Courtney B. Vance, “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”; Cuba Gooding Jr., “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”
Limited Series or Movie, Lead Actress: Felicity Huffman, “American Crime”; Lili Taylor, “American Crime”; Kerry Washington, “Confirmation”; Kirsten Dunst, “Fargo”; Audra McDonald, “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill”; Sarah Paulson, “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”
Outstanding Animated Program: “Archer,” “Bob’s Burgers,” “Phineas and Ferb Last Day of Summer,” “The Simpsons-Halloween of Horror,” “South Park-You’re Not Yelping.”
For lead drama, “Game of Thrones” and “Mr. Robot” will compete with “Better Call Saul,” “Homeland,” “House of Cards,” “The Americans” and “Downton Abbey,” the last a nod for its farewell season. But the final season of “The Good Wife” was not recognized, and star Julianna Margulies also was snubbed.
For Stephen Colbert, it was the inaugural season of his CBS late-night show that was overlooked, while network colleague James Corden earned a best variety talk series bid for his “Late Late Show.”
Aziz Ansari received a lead comedy acting bid for his series “Master of None,” a first for an Indian-American actor, and the show received a best comedy series nomination. Rami Malek, of Egyptian descent, earned a top drama acting nod for his role as a renegade hacker in another freshman, “Mr. Robot,” which also will compete for drama honors.
The ensemble cast of “Game of Thrones” found leading bids elusive. Peter Dinklage, named last year’s best supporting actor, will defend his title, with a nod also going to Kit Harington, who plays fan favorite Jon Snow. Emilia Clarke and Lena Headey earned supporting actress bids in a year that the show’s female characters gained the upper hand.
A top acting nod for “Veep” star Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who plays a U.S. vice president now elevated to the Oval Office, gives her the chance to score her fifth consecutive win and set a record.
“The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” which recounted the football legend’s sensational, racially charged trial for the slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, is a best limited series nominee and earned a number of acting awards for its cast’s portrayal of well-known figures.
Lead nominations went to Cuba Gooding Jr. as Simpson, Courtney B. Vance as defense attorney Johnnie Cochran and Sarah Paulson as prosecutor Marcia Clark. Supporting bids were given to Sterling K. Brown as prosecutor Christopher Darden, David Schwimmer as Simpson friend Robert Kardashian – patriarch of the now-famous family – and John Travolta as defense attorney Robert Shapiro.
Gooding and Vance will compete with Bryan Cranston as President Lyndon B. Johnson in “All The Way,” Benedict Cumberbatch in “Sherlock: The Abominable Bride (Masterpiece),” Idris Elba in “Luther” and Tom Hiddleston in “The Night Manager.”
In a phone interview, Paulson said that despite joy over her recognition she was happiest to learn that Brown was nominated for his portrayal of Darden.
“I jumped up and down …. more about that than about my own,” Paulson said. “I owe my performance whatever it is to him.”
The 68th prime-time Emmy show will be broadcast live on ABC from 8-11 p.m. EDT on Sept. 18, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.
AP Entertainment writers Mike Cidoni Lennox and Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.
This story was originally published July 14, 2016 at 8:56 AM with the headline "'Game of Thrones’ earns a leading 23 Emmy Award nominations."