In an echo of last year, HBO’ Max’s Succession leads this year’s Primetime Emmy nominations with 27 followed by fellow HBO Max shows The Last of Us on 24 and The White Lotus on 23, while Ted Lasso from Apple TV+ earned 21.
While the voting schedule has stayed the same, the ceremony itself has moved to January 2024 in the hope the US writers’ and actors’ strike willl be resolved by then.
Screen assesses the main drama and limited or anthology series categories, picking out the frontrunners and outside bets.
Drama series
Nominations:
Andor (Disney+)
Better Call Saul (AMC)
The Crown (Netflix)
House Of The Dragon (HBO Max)
The Last Of Us (HBO Max)
Succession (HBO Max)
The White Lotus (HBO Max)
Yellowjackets (Showtime)
When the strike-delayed Emmys ceremony finally happens in January, there could be a few surprises. But it will be a very big surprise if Succession doesn’t end the evening taking the drama series award for a third time.
After a fourth and final season that brought the struggle between media mogul Logan Roy and his adult children to a dramatic and emotional conclusion, the HBO Max series from UK creator Jesse Armstrong leads this year’s Emmy field with 27 nominations overall and looks certain to follow up on its wins in the top category in 2020 and 2022.
Contenders with a slim chance of delivering an upset include two other series from HBO and its sister streamer Max: video game adaptation The Last Of Us, which earned an impressive 24 nominations for its debut season, and comedy-drama The White Lotus, with 23 nominations for its second run. The White Lotus is up for best series for the first time after switching from the limited or anthology series category, in which it won the Emmy last year.
AMC’s Better Call Saul, with seven nominations for the second half of its sixth and final season, could also claim some votes, given its history of 53 Emmy nominations – including six for best drama – without a single win.
The long shots in a notably strong best series field are Netflix’s UK drama The Crown, with a fifth nomination in the category for its fifth season; Andor, the Disney+ Star Wars spin-off getting recognition for its acclaimed first season; HBO Max’s House Of The Dragon, also with a first-season nod; and Showtime’s Yellowjackets, nominated once again for its second run.
Limited or anthology series
Nominations:
Beef (Netflix)
Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (Netflix)
Daisy Jones & The Six (Prime Video)
Fleishman Is In Trouble (FX)
Obi-Wan Kenobi (Disney+)
Generating less buzz than in recent years (and missing its 2022 winner The White Lotus, now competing for best drama series), the limited series category looks like a contest between two Netflix shows, each with 13 nominations overall.
Beef, the dark, road rage-sparked comedy-drama created by Korean director Lee Sung Jin, attracted critical plaudits for its ten-episode spring run and has been given a sizable awards season marketing push.
Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, the latest dramatic take on the notorious American serial killer, got a more mixed reception when its ten episodes screened last winter. And though it won this year’s Bafta TV award for international programme it’s Emmy prospects may be hurt by producer Ryan Murphy’s decision to keep shooting on another of his shows during the US writers strike.
If there is a surprise in this category it could come from either Daisy Jones & The Six, the seventies rock drama from Amazon’s Prime Video, or Fleischman Is In Trouble, FX’s New York-set novel adaptation. Star Wars spin-off Obi Wan Kenobi, from Disney+, is probably a longer shot.
Recently acclaimed limited series that notably didn’t make it into the category (which has only five nominees, compared to eight for drama series) include Apple TV+’s Black Bird, Prime Video’s Dead Ringers and Showtime’s George And Tammy.
Lead actor in drama series
Nominations:
Jeff Bridges (The Old Man, FX)
Brian Cox (Succession, HBO Max)
Kieran Culkin (Succession, HBO Max)
Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul, AMC)
Pedro Pascal (The Last Of Us, HBO Max)
Jeremy Strong (Succession, HBO Max)
Nods in this category for three actors from a single show is an Emmy first that sets up a fascinating contest between the trio from Succession and the trio of other contenders.
From the Succession contingent, Scotland’s Brian Cox was nominated in the category in 2020 and 2022 for his work as the Roy family patriarch. But his chance of a win this time might be affected by the character’s early demise in the show’s final season.
Jeremy Strong won the category in 2020 and was nominated in 2022 and he delivered some powerful moments in the final season as scheming son Kendall Roy.
Kieran Culkin, nominated as a supporting actor in the series in 2020 and 2022, took his character Roman Roy through the kind of emotional changes that could now give him an edge in the lead actor field.
The three Succession stars might, of course, split the vote from fans of that show. In that case, Bob Odenkirk, previously nominated five times in this category and six times as a producer of Better Call Saul, could prevail by giving voters with a chance to finally hand the much-admired show an Emmy victory.
Or The Last Of Us star Pedro Pascal - also nominated this year for his guest appearance on Saturday Night Live and his work as a documentary narrator on Patagonia: Life On The Edge Of The World - could become the first Latinx actor to win the Emmy in the category.
Lead actress in drama series
Nominations:
Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters, Apple TV+)
Melanie Lynskey (Yellowjackets, Showtime)
Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale, Hulu)
Bella Ramsay (The Last Of Us HBO Max)
Keri Russell (The Diplomat, Netflix)
Sarah Snook (Succession, HBO Max)
As well as producing three award-worthy male performances, Succession’s final season gave Sarah Snook a meatier role as the sometimes manipulative, sometimes vulnerable Shiv Roy. Now the Australian star, Emmy-nominated for the series as supporting actress in 2020 and 2022, is the firm favourite to win the lead actress Emmy.
Not that Snook’s competition in the internationally-flavoured category is lacking (even after all the actors from The White Lotus, including SAG award winner Jennifer Coolidge, chose to to enter the Emmys in supporting rather than lead categories).
The UK’s Bella Ramsey is in the running after making a big impression as the teen embodying humanity’s last hope in The Last Of Us.
New Zealander Melanie Lynskey is a repeat contender for her work in Yellowjackets (though her support could be split by her simultaneous nomination as guest actress in The Last Of Us).
And Ireland’s Sharon Horgan adds acting recognition to her nomination for writing Apple TV+ Bafta TV award winner Bad Sisters.
Elisabeth Moss and Keri Russell, both with multiple previous nominations in the category, are back in contention for, respectively, The Handmaid’s Tale and The Diplomat.
Lead actor in limited or anthology series or movie
Nominations:
Taron Edgerton (Black Bird, Apple TV+)
Kumail Nanjiani (Welcome To Chippendales, Hulu)
Evan Peters (Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Netflix)
Daniel Radcliffe (Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, The Roku Channel)
Michael Shannon (George & Tammy, Showtime)
Steven Yeun (Beef, Netflix)
With a line-up of mostly first-time Emmy nominees, this category is one of the year’s most open.
Steven Yeun (a 2021 Oscar nominee for Minari) arguably has the advantage of being nominated for playing the troubled but likable male protagonist of Beef, the only entirely fictional character among the six nomination-producing roles.
Evan Peters, a 2021 Emmy winner as limited series supporting actor for Mare Of Easttown, got a SAG nomination and a Golden Globe for his quietly intense performance as the less likable and non-fictional Jeffrey Dahmer.
The UK’s Daniel Radcliffe comes to the Emmy field with a Bafta TV nomination and some enthusiastic supporters for his title role work in the Roku Channel’s Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.
Not to be discounted, meanwhile, are Michael Shannon, who sang and acted as country music icon George Jones in George & Tammy; Taron Edgerton, who became a fallen football star in Black Bird; and Kumail Nanjiani (a guest actor Emmy winner in 2018 for The Twilight Zone), who played a male stripping entrepreneur in Hulu’s Welcome To Chippendales.
Lead actress in limited or anthology series or movie
Nominations:
Lizzy Kaplan (Fleishman Is In Trouble, FX)
Jessica Chastain (George & Tammy, Showtime)
Dominique Fishback (Swarm, Prime Video)
Kathryn Hahn (Tiny Beautiful Things, Hulu)
Riley Keough (Daisy Jones & The Six, Prime Video)
Ali Wong (Beef, Netflix)
In a relatively diverse group of nominees, two performers with very different resumes look most likely to win the limited series lead actress Emmy.
Big screen star Jessica Chastain has already won a SAG award for her emotional and musical performance as country legend Tammy Wynette in George & Tammy and could now add her first Emmy to the Oscar she won earlier this year for playing another real-life Tammy in The Eyes Of Tammy Faye.
Ali Wong is best known as a stand-up comedian (she was previously Emmy nominated for her stand-up special Don Wong) but became the first Asian talent nominated in this category and could go on to win for her buzzy performance as a restless businesswoman and mother in Beef.
Should Chastain and Wong leave Emmy voters struggling to make a decision, the way could be open for a surprise win by Dominique Fishback, who impressed in Prime Video’s comedy thriller Swarm, Riley Keough, who showed her dramatic and musical chops in Daisy Jones & The Six, or Lizzy Kaplan in FX’s New York-set literary adaptation Fleishman Is In Trouble,
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