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Emmy nominations revealed: Biggest snubs and surprises

This year’s Emmy nominations are out, and there are a few big snubs and surprises – especially for TV A-lister Reese Witherspoon.

Film trailer: The Mandalorian

Nominations for the 2020 Emmy Awards were announced overnight and, as always, there were some major snubs and delightful surprises.

While the full Emmys nominations list included favourites like Watchmen and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, it was also full of surprises.

Disney+’s The Mandalorian nabbed 15 nominations, including one for Best Drama Series, while major star Reese Witherspoon was roundly snubbed out of acting nominations for Big Little Lies, Little Fires Everywhere, and The Morning Show. In fact, many of the acting categories seemed to honour fresh faces over stalwart awards favourites.

Reese Witherspoon, seen here in The Morning Show with Jennifer Aniston, was snubbed this year.
Reese Witherspoon, seen here in The Morning Show with Jennifer Aniston, was snubbed this year.

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Former Saturday Night Live star Leslie Jones hosted the nominations for the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards with some socially distant help from Laverne Cox, Josh Gad, and Tatiana Maslany. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel leads the comedy categories with 20 nominations, while Succession and Ozark look poised for a showdown in the Drama categories.

Elsewhere, HBO’s Watchmen - which streams on Binge - took home 26 nods, the most nominations of any show this year.

That’s the good news, but what failed to attract the attention of Emmy voters this year? Past Emmy favourites Pose and Big Little Lies were locked out of the Best Drama category. Elisabeth Moss didn’t get a nomination for The Handmaid’s Tale – instead making room for the likes of Euphoria star Zendaya – and Better Call Saul stars Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn were both denied nominations.

So what were the biggest snubs and surprises of the 2020 Emmy nominations? Here’s what you should be mad about and what’s worth celebrating.

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The Mandalorian is emerging as an Emmy favourite this year. Picture: Disney
The Mandalorian is emerging as an Emmy favourite this year. Picture: Disney

BIGGEST SNUBS OF THE 2020 EMMYS

While there’s no such thing as a 100 per cent “sure thing” when it comes to awards nominations, several omissions this year are sure to raise eyebrows – especially in the acting categories.

For years, Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk has been a favourite of Emmy voters, making his absence from the Best Drama Actor category rather stunning.

Perhaps more gutting to Saul fans, though, is the fact that the sterling Rhea Seehorn failed to make the Best Supporting Actress list. This last season was a big one for her character, Kim Wexler, and voters only have one season left of the series to throw nominations her way.

While it doesn’t come as too much of a shocker that Apple TV+’s The Morning Show roped in a number of nominations for its superstar cast, one big name was shunned by the Academy: Reese Witherspoon. Not only did Witherspoon fail to earn a nomination for The Morning Show, but she was also shut out for both Big Little Lies and Little Fires Everywhere. (Though as an executive producer, Witherspoon should be happy. All three shows earned nominations.)

Emmy voters cooled on Big Little Lies in its second season. Picture: HBO
Emmy voters cooled on Big Little Lies in its second season. Picture: HBO

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Speaking of Big Little Lies … The show was an Emmys darling when it was a limited series, but only earned five nods in its second season. Two of those were for Laura Dern and Meryl Streep in the Best Supporting Actress race. The fact that Emmy voters cooled on the hit show when it made its leap to an ongoing series might give Witherspoon and other big name producers pause next time they want to push a popular limited series further. The problem is two-fold. A near-perfect season of TV is hard to follow and it’s becoming increasingly popular for big name stars to dip into a prestige limited series … meaning it’s harder to impress with just star power alone.

Two of the biggest snubs have got to be The Handmaid’s Tale’s Elisabeth Moss and Netflix’s Unbelievable. While Unbelievable earned an honour for Best Limited Series, its stars Kaitlyn Dever and Merritt Wever were both expected to earn nominations in the Best Actress in a Limited Series or Movie category. They were seemingly edged out by two other Netflix stars, Octavia Spencer and Shira Haas.

A VERY surprising snub – no nomination for Elisabeth Moss.
A VERY surprising snub – no nomination for Elisabeth Moss.

As for Elisabeth Moss? Considered one of the most talented actresses in the history of television, Moss has just about owned real estate in the Best Drama Actress category since the inception of The Handmaid’s Tale. However, her absence from the category gave room for some younger stars to shine …

BIGGEST SURPRISES OF THE 2020 EMMYS

We all loved “Baby Yoda,” but it turns out Emmy voters really loved The Mandalorian. Disney+’s first major television show racked up 15 nominations, including one for Best Drama Series. Though the majority of those were in technical categories – and deservedly so – The Mandalorian’s very appearance in the Best Drama category might have been a shock to some. (Especially Pose fans.)

Other shows that edged into major categories include What We Do In The Shadows, which has been something of a cult hit and critics darling, and the aforementioned Unorthodox. Netflix’s limited series took a spot in the Limited Series race many prognosticators thought might go to Normal People, I Know This Much Is True, Hollywood, or The Plot Against America. That, coupled with Haas’s nomination, suggest voters might be more bullish on the series than experts assumed.

Zendaya has scored her first Emmy nom.
Zendaya has scored her first Emmy nom.

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But the biggest and most welcome surprises came in the major acting categories. Euphoria star Zendaya earned her first nomination for Best Actress in a Drama while Hollywood standout Jeremy Pope and Normal People heart-throb Paul Mescal both wound up in the Best Actor in a Limited Series or Movie race, against titans like Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Jackman, and Jeremy Irons.

Maybe the best surprise of the day was seeing a marked amount of diversity in the nominations. This year, BPOC performers were represented in every single acting category. As Frank Sherma, the chairman and CEO of the Television Academy, touched upon in his opening remarks, 2020 has been a year of massive cultural change. The pandemic aside, there has been an urgent call to address systemic racism on a mass scale … It’s something that looks to be reflected in the nominees for this year’s Emmys.

The 72nd Emmy Awards will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and will stream exclusively on Foxtel in Australia on Monday, September 21.

FULL LIST OF NOMINEES

Outstanding drama series:

Better Call Saul

The Crown

The Handmaid’s Tale

Killing Eve

The Mandalorian

Ozark

Stranger Things

Succession

Outstanding lead actress in a drama series:

Jennifer Aniston, The Morning Show

Olivia Colman, The Crown

Jodie Comer, Killing Eve

Laura Linney, Ozark

Sandra Oh, Killing Eve

Zendaya, Euphoria

Outstanding lead actor in a drama series:

Jason Bateman, Ozark

Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us

Billy Porter, Pose

Jeremy Strong, Succession

Brian Cox, Succession

Steve Carell, The Morning Show

Outstanding comedy series:

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Dead To Me

The Good Place

Insecure

The Kominsky Method

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Schitt’s Creek

What We Do In The Shadows

Outstanding lead actress in a comedy series:

Christina Applegate, Dead To Me

Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Linda Cardellini, Dead To Me

Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek

Issa Rae, Insecure

Tracee Ellis Ross, black-ish

Outstanding lead actor in a comedy series:

Anthony Anderson, black-ish

Don Cheadle, Black Monday

Ted Danson, The Good Place

Michael Douglas, The Kominsky Method

Eugene Levy, Schitt’s Creek

Ramy Youssef, Ramy

Outstanding variety/talk series:

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver

The Daily Show With Trevor Noah

Jimmy Kimmel Live

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert

Full Frontal With Samantha Bee

Outstanding reality/competition program:

RuPaul’s Drag Race

The Voice

Nailed It

Top Chef

The Masked Singer

Outstanding variety sketch series:

A Black Lady Sketch Show

Drunk History

Saturday Night Live

Outstanding limited series:

Watchmen

Mrs. America

Unbelievable

Little Fires Everywhere

Unorthodox

Outstanding lead actor in a limited series or movie:

Mark Ruffalo, I Know This Much Is True

Hugh Jackman, Bad Education

Jeremy Irons, Watchmen

Paul Mescal, Normal People

Jeremy Pope, Hollywood

Outstanding lead actress in a limited series or movie:

Cate Blanchett, Mrs. America

Regina King, Watchmen

Kerry Washington, Little Fires Everywhere

Shira Haas, Unorthodox

Octavia Spencer, Self-Made

Outstanding supporting actor in a drama series:

Giancarlo Esposito, Better Call Saul

Bradley Whitford, The Handmaid’s Tale

Billy Crudup, The Morning Show

Mark Duplass, The Morning Show

Nicholas Braun, Succession

Kieran Culkin, Succession

Matthew Macfadyen, Succession

Jeffrey Wright, Westworld

Outstanding supporting actress in a drama series:

Laura Dern, Big Little Lies

Meryl Streep, Big Little Lies

Helena Bonham Carter, The Crown

Samira Wiley, The Handmaid’s Tale

Fiona Shaw, Killing Eve

Julia Garner, Ozark

Sarah Snook, Succession

Thandie Newton, Westworld

Outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series:

Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine-Nine

William Jackson Harper, The Good Place

Alan Arkin, The Kominsky Method

Sterling K. Brown, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Tony Shalhoub, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Mahershala Ali, Ramy

Kenan Thompson, Saturday Night Live

Dan Levy, Schitt’s Creek

Outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series:

Betty Gilpin, GLOW

D’Arcy Carden, The Good Place

Yvonne Orji, Insecure

Alex Borstein, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Marin Hinkle, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Kate McKinnon, Saturday Night Live

Cecily Strong, Saturday Night Live

Annie Murphy, Schitt’s Creek

Outstanding supporting actor in a limited series or movie:

Dylan McDermott, Hollywood

Jim Parsons, Hollywood

Tituss Burgess, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy Vs. The Reverend

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Watchmen

Jovan Adepo, Watchmen

Louis Gossett Jr, Watchmen

Outstanding supporting actress in a limited series or movie:

Holland Taylor, Hollywood

Uzo Aduba, Mrs. America

Margo Martindale, Mrs. America

Tracey Ullman, Mrs. America

Toni Collette, Unbelievable

Jean Smart, Watchmen

This story originally appeared on Decider and is republished here with permission

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