“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.
The Sept. 18 Emmy show will be broadcast live on ABC from 8-11 p.m. EDT, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.
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.
“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 Americans,” which gained in attention last season, also earned bids for its stars, Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys.
Besides Russell, Davis and Henson, lead drama actress bids went to Claire Danes for “Homeland” and Tatiana Maslany for “Orphan Black.”
Malek and Rhys will be competing with Kevin Spacey for “House of Cards,” Kyle Chandler for “Bloodline,” Bob Odenkirk for “Better Call Saul” and Liev Schreiber for “Ray Donovan.”
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.
On the comedy side, “Veep,” “black-ish” and “Master of None” will tussle for the trophy with five-time champ “Modern Family,” “Transparent,” “Silicon
Valley” and “Unbreakable
Kimmy Schmidt.”
Comments are not available on this story. Read more about why we allow commenting on some stories and not on others.
We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others.
We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion.
You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs.
Show less