The nominations for the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards will be announced this morning, with The Crown and Ted Lasso among the contenders under consideration.
The nominations will be revealed by Ron Cephas Jones of This Is Us and his daughter Jasmine Cephas Jones, who stars in Blindspotting, as well as TV academy chief executive Frank Scherma.
In its fourth season, the British royal drama The Crown moved closer to contemporary events with its version of the courtship and rocky marriage of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer, played by Josh O’Connor and Emma Corrin.
The actors are among the favourites for Emmy nods, along with Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II and Gillian Anderson as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
For Netflix, which led the way for the rise of streaming services but has yet to claim a top series trophy, The Crown may represent its best bet. It’s been nominated three times before.
Ted Lasso, a feel-good comedy about a middling American football coach abruptly imported to England to take over a soccer team, could snare nominations for star Jason Sudeikis and cast members including Hannah Waddingham and Nick Mohammed. The show could further burnish Apple’s television bona fides, after the company scored several nominations for The Morning Show last year.
Last year’s Emmys saw the departing Schitt’s Creek take a stunning seven awards, including acting wins for its four Canadian leads. While that level of Canadian success won’t be duplicated for the 2020 crop of shows, Saskatchewan native Tatiana Maslany — a previous Emmy winner for Orphan Black — could by vying for supporting actress consideration for her work in Perry Mason.
Canadian actor Tatiana Maslany, seen at a 2018 event in Toronto, starred in Perry Mason the past season. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press)
Contenders in the miniseries category include The Queen’s Gambit, with breakout star Anya Taylor-Joy as a troubled chess prodigy, and The Underground Railroad, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead and created by Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins of Moonlight fame.
Thuso Mbedu and Aaron Pierre, who star in the wrenching depiction of U.S. slavery combined with elements of magical realism, are potential nominees.
Lovecraft Country, which spins a tale about mid-20th-century racism with elements of horror, could be up for drama series honours despite its cancellation by HBO after one season.
The Mandalorian and WandaVision are among the sci-fi and fantasy genre shows in contention.
Several stars nominated
Also vying for Emmy consideration are shows that made a splash and boast movie stars, including the crime miniseries Mare of Easttown with Kate Winslet and The Undoing with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant.
The acting nominations will likely be watched for their degree of inclusiveness. Last year, there were a record number of Black nominees — 35 — among the 102 contenders for lead, supporting and guest performances in drama, comedy and limited series or TV movie.
Kate Winslet and Guy Pearce are shown in a scene from HBO’s Mare of Easttown. (HBO/The Associated Press)
At slightly more than 34 per cent of nominees, that improved on the 2018 record of just under 28 per cent of Black actors in those categories. Voters also have the chance to recognize other actors of colour, including Rosie Perez for the comedy thriller The Flight Attendant, and trans actors Mj Rodriguez and Angelica Ross for Pose.
The Sept. 10 ceremony, which last year was held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic, will air live on CBS from a theatre and include a limited in-person audience of nominees and guests. Cedric the Entertainer is the host.
Many events since the pandemic have suffered in the ratings department, perhaps none more than the Emmys, which last year attracted around 6.1 million viewers in the United States, a 13 per cent drop from 2019.