The 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards will be televised live at 6 p.m. Sept. 18 on ABC, with Jimmy Kimmel as host. That should take care of the entire Sunday lineup. Just be grateful that all 113 categories aren't covered.
The nominations were revealed last week and now that the dust has settled, let's take a look at the list to see if there are any surprises and how many of your favorites made the cut.
There's one notable change in the process this year. Nominations have moved from the ossified blue-ribbon panels to include all 22,000 members of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. That should mean more diversity as time goes on. Academy members are sensitive to the backlash that happened this year when the Oscars failed to nominate a single black actor in a movie for the second year in a row.
• Drama: Game of Thrones (HBO); Mr. Robot (USA); The Americans (FX); Homeland (Showtime); Downton Abbey (PBS); Better Call Saul (AMC); House of Cards (Netflix).
It's good to note the well-deserved breakthrough for The Americans.
The pre-Emmy favorite is the wildly popular Game of Thrones, which rode a strong sixth season to an impressive 23 nominations this year -- the most for any program.
For the record, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (a drama with a strong black cast) is a close second with 22 nominations. Fargo has 18 and Veep (HBO) brought in 17.
• Comedy: Modern Family (ABC); black-ish (ABC); Silicon Valley (HBO); Transparent (Amazon); Veep (HBO); Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix); Master of None (Netflix).
If Modern Family wins again, it'll break its five-time tie with Frasier for the most Emmys for a comedy.
• Actor/Comedy: Anthony Anderson, black-ish; Aziz Ansari, Master of None; Will Forte, Last Man on Earth (Fox); William H. Macy, Shameless (Showtime); Thomas Middleditch, Silicon Valley; Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent.
Tambor won last year, but Anderson, who is black, is the early favorite. More diversity? The 33-year-old Ansari, creator of Master of None, is a South Carolina native born to Muslim parents who immigrated from India.
• Actress/Comedy: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep; Ellie Kemper, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt; Tracee Ellis Ross, black-ish; Laurie Metcalf, Getting On (HBO); Amy Schumer, Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy Central); Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie (Netflix).
This is the first nomination for Ross and Kemper. The other four have all won in this category and Louis-Dreyfus has won the thing five times, including four times (2012-2015) for Veep.
• Actor/Drama: Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul; Kyle Chandler, Bloodline (Netflix); Rami Malek, Mr. Robot; Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan (Showtime); Kevin Spacey, House of Cards; Matthew Rhys, The Americans.
Malek is getting the buzz.
• Actress/Drama: Claire Danes, Homeland; Viola Davis, How to Get Away With Murder (ABC); Taraji P. Henson, Empire (Fox); Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black (BBC America); Keri Russell, The Americans; Robin Wright, House of Cards.
Maybe Russell will get her due after four seasons. Davis won last year.
• Limited Series: The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (FX); Roots (History Channel); American Crime (ABC); Fargo (FX); The Night Manager (AMC).
The first two had strong black casts and themes, while The Night Manager nailed 12 nominations overall.
By the numbers: Times are changing, fellow boomers. Although HBO led all nominations with 94, that's down from 126 last year and the credit goes to the original offerings from the streaming services. Note that three of the seven nominees for best comedy come from online outlets.
Also, broadcast networks have not had a best drama nomination since 2011.
FX set a record for ad-supported basic cable with 56 nominations, up from last year's 38. Even Sony's Crackle online service (did you even know about that?) earned three nominations for Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and the stop-motion animation series SuperMansion.
Snubs? Stephen Colbert was ignored for his efforts on The Late Show and Samantha Bee didn't make the cut for Full Frontal With Samantha Bee on TBS.
Netflix's Orange Is the New Black seems to have lost its buzz, and many fans would like to have seen The Good Wife, the best drama on broadcast TV, go out with a little love.
Finally, American Idol, once the juggernaut king of all TV, only managed best host and lighting design nominations. Lighting design? And so it goes.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Weekend on 07/21/2016